The Awakened
by NeoNimbus
Summary: The sequel to The Newcomer. A power long unknown reveals itself and it chooses Brian and his friends as their hosts, marking the start of many new adventures that will transform them into heroes.
1. The Beginning: Part 1

**Hey there everyone, this is Neonimbus and back with a new story within the TAWOG archive. With the help of Sal and my beta reader, we're here to present you the official sequel to The Newcomer. So what's in stored for Brian and his friends this time around? Well...read and find out and I hope you guys enjoy the beginning of a new story!**

**Finally, as a reminder, I don't owned TAWOG. Just the story by itself.**

**Update: After checking the guest review regarding the title, both Sal and I agreed to alter the title and for that, we thank Okay for pointing this out and we appreciate his honesty about it.**

**That said, Enjoy!**

**The Awakened**

_An Amazing World of Gumball Story_

By Neonimbus

Chapter 1: The Beginning: Part 1

_For eons, there has been a war that has been raging on, a fight to determine the fate of the world. Many are unaware of that fight but soon that may not be the case anymore. There are individuals that possess abilities that can only be obtained from the previous wielders passing them on, granting them skills beyond anyone's limits and dreams. Some used them for the greater good, but others used them for their own selfish means._

_These are the stories of a group of kids whose lives have been forever changed in one night..._

It was a dark and cold night in an unknown forest, but for one stranger, a red humanoid, his night was turning out to be anything but good. He was running for dear life, ignoring the heavy breathing coming out from his mouth and the pain from his muscles. All he wanted to do was find a safe spot and get the hell away from that...that monster that is still chasing him like it was no big deal. He just lost all his friends and he was the last one still breathing.

'_This can't be happening! Why the hell does this have to happen to us?!''_

As much as he wanted the answer to come flying straight towards him, this wasn't the case, as the stranger ran straight into a dead end. Panic and anxiety soon came, as he desperately looked for any place where he can hide; after a few minutes, however, it became apparent that there were no avenues of escape. But before he could...

"GAH!" the humanoid screamed as he felt something pierce straight through his chest before being taken out forcefully, leaving him bleeding profusely. Before he passed on, he finally saw the face of his attacker but that info would do him no good in the afterlife. The mysterious figure, cloaked in a form of camouflage pulled out a device before talking into it.

"It's done; we've got them," he said with a cold, almost emotionless tone from his Russian accent.

"You'd better make sure it stays that way..." the voice from the device began. "Track down the next set and when you do, finish them off immediately."

"Don't worry, comrade. I'll do just that," the mysterious figure responded, before turning the device off, as he looked onward to the moon. "Soon, they'll have nowhere else to go."

* * *

***Beep Beep Beep Beep***

The sounds of an obnoxiously loud alarm clock filled the bedroom of a certain purple fox. He rolled over groaning loudly to shut off the clock though it took him a few tries to hit the off button.

"Ugh! Stupid clock," the fox grumbled, as he rolled back over to sleep some more, though his mother had other plans.

"Brian!" she called from downstairs. "Breakfast is ready!"

"Coming mom!" Brian quickly replied, despite his reluctance, as he leapt out of his bed and into his closet. Almost a minute later, he came out with his new attire that he picked out for the new school year: which consisted of a white and green shirt and dark blue jeans. He still had his three strand of hair, but they had grown longer and Brian himself had gotten taller during the last three years living in Elmore.

Once he got dressed in his new clothes, Brian immediately headed downstairs and into the kitchen and into an open seat, just in time to see his mom finish cooking her son's breakfast.

"I hope you like eggs and bacon," Annie said to her son, as she served the meal from the pan.

"Thanks mom," Brian told his mother, before he gulped them down in a matter of seconds.

"Brian, chew with your mouth closed!" Annie scolded her son. "And maybe taste your food while you're at it!"

"Sorry about that," Brian apologized to his mother. "Guess I was in a rush to get to school." Brian lied, as he really wasn't in any rush, preferring his summer break.

"I know when you're lying," Annie concluded. "Anyway, you should really get going. Don't forget to clean up your room when you get back home."

"Don't worry, mom, I will and thanks for breakfast," said Brian, before he waved a goodbye to his mother and quickly went out the front door, hoping not to be late on his first day back in high school.

* * *

Gumball, along with Darwin and Mike, waited patiently for their friend to show up, before the school bus suddenly showed up, the bus driver impatiently waiting for the three of them to get on.

During the last three years, the three had changed significantly; Gumball surprisingly has gotten quite as tall as Brian and he had just two strands of hair sticking out of his head. He was wearing a white shirt with a black vest, as well as a pair of khaki pants. Darwin also got taller, but not as much. Interestingly, he started to wear pants for the first time, as well as a pair of blue sneakers. Finally, Mike made the most significant changes out of the three, as he was also much taller, and he was wearing a black hoodie with red writing on it, a green shirt underneath it, cargo khakis and brown sneakers. He also had a few hairs sticking out of his head whenever he forgets to brush it, like on this day for instance.

"Where the hell is Brian? He should have been here by now," Gumball noted, as he was becoming a bit impatient waiting for the fox to show up.

"Chill out for a second, Gumball. I'm sure he'll be here in no time," Darwin attempted to calm his brother down.

"Darwin's right," Mike agreed. "Besides, he's not the kind of person to flake out at the last minute."

"I hope so," the blue feline muttered under his breath.

"Can you three get on sometime today?" the bus driver asked, clearly irritated.

"Oh quiet, you," Mike spouted back in defiance.

Just then, the trio heard some heavy breathing, prompting them to turn around and see Brian making his way to them, breathing heavily from all of the running he was forced to do.

"I'm sorry...to make...you guys...wait," Brian panted, as he explained his actions. "But...I'm here...now."

"It's about damn time you showed up!" Gumball exclaimed. "Now come on, we're going to be late."

Nodding his head in agreement, Brian, along with his friends, made their way onto the bus, as it drove off towards school.

* * *

Elmore High School, as expected on its first day, was quite packed with many students arriving at the building after a long summer away. Unlike Elmore Junior High, the school was rather large, designed specifically to accommodate students from both the previous Elmore Junior High/High School and Elmore Academy and as such, they are expected to at least get along with one another. In addition, it was also state of the art in terms of quality, from the security to the latest technology, designed specifically to make sure that students who planned to pull off some prank will reconsider their actions. In other words, this high school was one that Elmore had never seen before, but exactly how it managed to accomplish such a feat remained a mystery to most people, even to the teachers themselves.

The bus pulled up to the nearest bus stop, allowing its passengers off, including Brian, Mike and the Watterson brothers, as they made their way to the main entrance of their high school.

"So how was your summer?" Brian asked his friends.

"Gumball got attacked by a raccoon," Darwin happily replied, causing Brian to laugh his head off.

"He was trying to eat my cashews!" Gumball angrily explained.

"So he was biting your nuts?" Mike asked with a smirk.

"You weren't there when it happened!" Gumball furiously retorted. All the insults, put downs, and jokes from Mike over the years had taken its toll, causing Gumball to have a bit of a fiery temper, at least when his girl wasn't around.

"Hold it right there, boys!" a stern voice shouted, causing the four to cringe before they looked down and saw a parrot right in front of them, wearing a lavender suit, blue tie and a pair of brown loafers. Judging from his appearance and authority-like demeanor, there was no doubt that he was the principal of Elmore High School.

"Hi Principal McCaw," Brian nervously greeted the irate principal. "You're not still peeved about what happened before summer break, are you?" The principal's gaze fell on Mike, who was the instigator of the..."Chicken Noodle Incident", which resulted in them serving detention on the very first week of summer.

"Principal McCaw, we swear, it wasn't on purpose," Gumball feverishly explained to the principal.

"...Mostly," Mike muttered.

"It was beyond our control," Darwin insisted.

"Yeah, I heard that explanation a few times when you four were serving detention and I had to spend a week of MY summer watching you...ingrates," Principal McCaw reminded the boys, much to their discomfort.

"Look, Principal McCaw, we swear nothing bad will happen this time around," Brian attempted to reason with the principal.

"...If you boys pull off something like that again, then you'll be serving more than just a week of detention," Principal McCaw warned the four. "You boys are on thin ice as it is. Don't make it thinner. Now get to your class right now before I have you written up for being late."

"Yes sir!" The four nodded their heads in agreement before taking off into the building for class.

"Please tell me he didn't wait outside just for us," Brian asked.

"Twenty bucks says yes," Mike joked.

"What class do we have first?" Gumball asked, changing the subject.. Mike reached into his pocket and pulled out his copy of the class schedule.

"Looks like we have homeroom first period...at a Mrs. Vanessa Tulip's room at Room 208," Mike explained. "She must be new. I don't remember her last year on the high school staff."

"Her room must be on the second floor," Brian deduced. The four walked up the stairs and looked around for the room. With the school being brand new, they weren't accustomed to it yet.

"Here it is!" Darwin shouted, having spotted the room he and his friends were looking for.

But before they could walk into the room, a familiar voice stopped them.

"Long time no see!" The four turned around and saw a red bear, slightly taller than Mike and built like a house, wearing a brown leather jacket, a blue shirt underneath it, fingerless gloves and black pants. The moment the boys saw him they knew who they are looking at.

"Oh...hi Ivan," Brian nervously greeted his former rival, being uncomfortable in his presence.

"If it isn't the big bruiser himself!" Mike playfully joked as he and Ivan fist bumped.

"And if it isn't Stripes himself." Ivan cheerfully replied. "I see you're going to that homeroom. Funny, considering I'm also heading there myself. Here, let me open the door for you guys."

Ivan then opened the door and allowed the four in, before following them behind. Brian had to remind himself that Ivan wouldn't harm a fly anymore (unless it was on a gridiron in which case no one was safe), but just being in his presence left him rather uncomfortable, though he had to admit that it was nice of his ex-rival to let them in. Ivan had made huge strides in changing his personality as he was no longer the bully that they once knew. Now he was a respected student and co-captain on the football team, as well as a teammate of Mike's, who was the starting quarterback and the other offensive captain. Being on the football team gave him an avenue to let out his aggression in a productive manner, which was making sure Mike didn't get sacked every other play.

'_Looks like we made it just in time,'_ Brian happily thought, as he and his friends walked in. The room had instead of desks, tables with four chairs at each one. The four spotted a table with no one at it and sat in the open seats, just as their teacher finally arrived shortly afterwards, who turned out to be a tulip as expected, but she was quite tall for her kind, with a thin frame, long leaves as appendages, a brown vase and a pair of glasses.

"Good morning class!" the tulip spoke in a kind and respectful voice. "I hope everyone had a good summer break!"

"Mostly everyone," Mike whispered to Brian, as both snickered afterwards, to Gumball's annoyance.

"I am Vanessa Tulip, but please called me Ms. Tulip," the tulip introduced herself. "As I'm new to this school and to you all, I thought it would be nice if I could get to know a bit about everyone. So I'm going to pass out these papers and you can just tell me a bit about yourselves," Ms. Tulip went around the room and passed out papers to everyone in the room.

"This is great, our first day back in high school and already we have to do some paper work?" Gumball quietly complained, before Darwin nudged him with his elbow.

"Gumball, be quiet. She might hear you," his brother scolded him.

"Darwin's right," Brian agreed. "We don't want to get into trouble already. Just get this over with."

"Fine, just so you guys won't be nagging me all day," Gumball reluctantly agreed, before he and his friends began their first assignment.

"While you're working, you may talk freely as long as it's not so loud that I have other teachers barging in to complain," Ms. Tulip instructed as the room became much more alive as everyone began to converse with each other.

'_I think I'm going to like this class after all,'_ Gumball happily thought, having reconsidered what he previously thought.

* * *

So as homeroom came to an end, Gumball, Darwin, and Brian all stood up to leave before...

"Where are you guys going?" Mike asked as he remained in his seat, "Second period is in here as well." the boys were amazed that they had the same teacher two periods in a row. They immediately went back to their seats as if nothing happened.

"This is a first," Brian commented.

"I know, we have another class starting and already it's the same teacher who has been so nice to everyone," Darwin happily said.

"I can't believe this is really happening," Gumball whined, prompting Darwin to punch him on the shoulder.

"You are such a little whiner!" Mike flat out insulted. "Did you actually become even more of a prima-donna during the summer?"

"Just be glad that Ms. Tulip isn't like Miss Simian," Brian reminded his friend.

"Well…there is that," Gumball agreed. "I just don't want to be in school again."

"Oh suck it up. You got through ten grades without dying. I doubt two more will kill you."

"That's not very reassuring, Mike," Gumball disagreed.

"Quiet, you guys. Ms. Tulip is about to start," Darwin informed his friends, prompting them to be quiet, as their teacher began her lesson.

"Alright class, we will be learning about ancient Egyptians. Please get a blue book off the shelf and turn to page twelve..."

* * *

After another hour in Ms. Tulip's history class, the boys' next period was PE, as the four made their way to the school gym. Though instead of a normal gym class, there was to be an assembly in the gym as it was big enough for all the students to sit in. In the midst of the wave of students, Brian, Mike and the Watterson brothers spotted a few empty spots, thanks to three certain girls.

"Thanks for saving the seats for us," Brian thanked his girlfriend.

"Anytime Brian, we were just glad that we made it here before anyone else did," Rhonda insisted.

Brian couldn't help but admire his girlfriend, due to his newfound height. In the last three years, Rhonda, the girl of his dreams, became quite beautiful in his eyes; she maintained her short hair that she had since her days in seventh grade, but she now wore a blue sweater, with a black shirt over it, a pair of grey pants and purple sneakers. In addition, she became quite developed, though Rhonda herself was rather uncomfortable by the attention she was receiving; fortunately for her, Brian was always there when she needed it and handled any situation, thanks to some training from Mike.

But Rhonda wasn't the only girl that has changed. Penny made a drastic change, having decided to ditch her shell as soon as she started high school, revealing herself to be a deer underneath. She now wore a red and orange shirt, white skirt and green sneakers, though she still wore her red and orange wristbands.

"Penny, it's good to see your face!" Gumball happily said to the deer.

"It's been a long while, Gumball, but it's good to see you too," said Penny, returning her affection to her boyfriend.

"There's my grisly girl," Mike fondly spoke, as he sat next to Carrie and put his arm around her shoulder, which she moved closer to meet him. Carrie became quite optimistic since she started high school, no longer a depressed ghost and she even developed as well, wearing a white jacket and tank top to emphasize the change. The area below her waist was nothing more than her tail, which she sometimes liked to tease Mike with. The only thing that hasn't changed is the bow she had with her and part of her face being covered by her now long, flowing hair. She seemed to enjoy it when he said things that normal guys would get dumped for normally.

"Haven't been able to see you as much as I wanted this summer," Carrie seemed to chuckle at her boyfriend's words.

"It must have been torture without me," Carrie affectionately said to him.

"Yeah, summer didn't get off to a good start," Mike briefly explained to his girlfriend.

"Oh yeah, I remember about that," Carrie noted with a smile. "Never a dull moment with you around. So what really happened back there?"

"...Let's just say that me, Brian, Gumball and Darwin were unable to control the situation despite our best efforts," Mike replied, as he sheepishly rubbed his head.

"Okay, if that's your story," said Carrie, deciding not to ask too much regarding the unfortunate incident that took place a few months ago. "By the way, how's Darwin?"

"He's been doing well, though the first few weeks were tough on him," Gumball explained to her. Ever since Rachel left for college, Darwin had a hard time adjusting to life without her. Eventually, after a while, the two decided to maintain their relationship through emails and phone calls; at the very least, they were able to remain in contact until Darwin finished high school.

"Looks like he really misses her a lot," Rhonda noted.

"Considering that we went camping for two weeks, I don't blame him," Gumball simply stated.

"Oh yeah!" Mike remembered something. "You better tell us how you got attacked by a raccoon!" This prompted the girls to turn their attention to him.

"You got attacked by a raccoon, Gumball?!" asked a shocked and clearly sympathetic Penny.

"That probably wasn't a pleasant experience," Rhonda guessed.

"But it probably would have been funny to watch," Carrie figured, causing Mike to chuckle himself. Gumball, on the other hand, was hardly amused.

"You just had to tell them, did you?"

"Alright, students! It's time to begin!" Principal McCaw announced.

"I'll tell you guys later," Mike slyly said, causing an irked Gumball to grumble to himself.

"I would first like to welcome you all back from your summer vacation and to the new faces I would like to welcome you to the new Elmore High School!" The principal spoke again into his microphone. "But now that you're back it's time for you all to learn again and with this new facility, we will be able to give you the best learning experience possible. But before we do anything else, I'd like to introduce your teachers."

Principal McCaw then gestured his wing to his right as one, a green humanoid who appeared to be in his early thirties, black hair tied into a ponytail, wearing a blue tracksuit and a pair of black sneakers, was the first to come up. "Introducing first, our new PE teacher, Mr. Zachary Kenshin!"

"It is an honor to be here," Zack spoke with a strong Japanese accent, as he bowed his head to the principal and went right back to his seat, before a porcupine with orange fur and needles sticking out from his back, dressed in a white dress shirt, a red and black tie and brown trousers with suspenders made his way up.

"Next, meet your new biology teacher, Mr. Sam Pines."

"Thank you Principal McCaw, it's great to be here, but before I head back to my seat, I just want to let you know...THAT I HATED YOUR GUTS FROM THE MOMENT I LAID MY EYES ON YOU!"

With that, Sam then happily went back to his seat, as if nothing had happened, leaving both Principal McCaw and the rest of the students baffled by his unusual behavior.

"New favorite teacher. Hands down," Mike commented quietly to Carrie, causing her to giggle.

"Alright then," Principal McCaw muttered under his breath, brushing it off like nothing happened. "Moving on."

The principal went on to introduce the rest of the teachers, many of which Brian and his friends didn't have. After introducing all the teachers, Principal McCaw finished up the assembly. "I would like to wish everyone a good year at our school and I hope to see you all succeed here. You are all dismissed. Please head to your next classes."

Every student in the gym let out a sigh of relief, as everyone got out of their seats and made their way to the exit, as they all headed out to their next periods. As they made their way to their next class, the gang couldn't help but make some observations regarding their new teachers.

"Mr. Pines is just like Mr. Small, only he seemed to be more direct with his behavior," Gumball noted.

"Yeah and Mr. Kenshin is quite respectful for a gym teacher." Brian stated.

"I don't know about you guys, but they seem out of place," said Darwin.

"In this crazy ass town? Nah, they fit in just fine!" Mike joked.

"I wonder what happened to the other teachers from last year?" Carrie asked.

"Who knows? They might have gotten jobs at other schools," Penny figured.

"This is going to be an interesting school year," Rhonda spoke with amusement.

"Considering this is Elmore, anything can happen," Brian reminded his friends, to which they nodded in agreement.

"Well, we might as well meet our new gym teacher," Mike suggested as Mr. Kenshin was their current teacher for the current period, as they approached the green humanoid.

"Greetings, students," Zack happily said to them. "I hope that we get along this school year."

"Same here, Mr. Kenshin," said Brian respectfully. "My name is Brian and these are my friends: Gumball, Darwin, Mike, Penny, Rhonda and Carrie." They all said hello in their own ways.

"It is a pleasure to meet you all."

"Same here, teach," Gumball playfully said, before Darwin nudge him in the side.

"You're supposed to say sensei, Gumball," Darwin corrected his brother.

"There is no need for any of that here, Darwin," Zack assured his student. "Everyone is treated as equals and therefore, it is alright to just be yourself."

"Oh, alright then," Darwin said to the gym teacher. The rest of the class joined the group to Zack's delight.

"Ah, we are all here! Please take a seat, everyone!" Zack instructed, as he wanted to begin, before becoming serious, as everyone sat and quieted down. "I will now explain how we will be doing things during this hour." Zack seemed to transform into a completely different person, as he was now speaking in a very stern, no-nonsense voice.

"To warm up, we will be doing three laps around the gym and we will be starting..." Zack took a look at his watch before looking back at his students. "...right now!"

Stunned to hear this, but not wanting to get on Zack's bad side, everyone immediately got up and began to jog around the gym, while their gym teacher looked on.

"After you're done with your three laps, you will all make a circle so we may begin our stretches!" Zack shouted to make sure he was heard by all the students. "And no cutting corners!" Zack shouted as he spotted Gumball doing just that.

* * *

Once PE finished after a long hour, every student left the gym, trodding their way to their next period. Everyone was tired and worn out having just gone through one of the toughest gym classes they could remember. By the time Brian and his friends finally made it to their next class, which turned out to be biology, the gang simply wanted to rest and forget the whole ordeal, especially Gumball.

"Ah man! I can't believe he made us exercise on our first day back here!" Gumball complained out loud.

"He obviously takes his job very seriously, Gumball," Darwin added, as he moved weakly.

"I know what you mean..." Brian began, as he rubbed his sore arm. "I thought for sure he was like Ms. Tulip."

"I went through many exercise routines before, but nothing like that," Rhonda noted.

"If you're the one sore, that's saying quite a bit," Penny stated, as she needed Gumball to keep her balance.

"That guy likes his aerobics a bit too much," Mike stated as he rubbed the back of his head. "How many jumping jacks did we do? Fifty?"

"I don't see what you guys are complaining about," Carrie nonchalantly commented. Mike would say something if he wasn't dating her, but Gumball wasn't restricted by that fact though.

"Of course you wouldn't!" Gumball argued, though Carrie didn't seem to care.

"Look, we can argue later. Mr. Pines is starting." Carrie informed her friend, prompting everyone to be silent, as the porcupine began to teach.

"Alright class, it's so good to see you," Sam greeted them, oblivious to how tired and worn out they really are. "But before I began my lesson, I'm going to set one thing straight...IF I CATCH ONE OF YOU SLACKING OFF, YOU'RE GOING TO GET AN F ON THE SPOT!" Everyone in the room was instantly startled by the sudden change in voice, before Sam calmed down long enough to be back to his old self. "Does anyone here understand? Good."

"...This class is going to be the death of us," Gumball whispered to his brother, as Sam was starting his lesson.

"Agreed," Darwin fearfully nodded his head.

* * *

After one agonizing hour of trying to keep themselves up as best as they can, biology class finally came to an end, as the gang went to the new and quite spacious cafeteria to get something to eat, before they looked for a table to sit down and eat their lunch.

"I swear, I'll never look at biology class the same again," Gumball lamented, as he chewed on a sandwich.

"Tell me about it, Gumball. Mr. Pines is even more unpredictable than Mr. Small," Brian outright stated.

"Or any sentient life form on the face of the earth," Mike added after Carrie phased into his body so she could eat lunch too.

"Why was he even hired to begin with?!" Darwin whined. "I swear, for a moment, it looked like he was staring through me!"

"Maybe he's just that good at his job?" Penny reasoned.

"Or maybe he was hired at the last minute," Rhonda suggested.

As the gang continued on with their conversation, they failed to notice someone heading right towards their table.

"Hey guys! I see your first day back here is off to a bad start," the gang turned around and saw a green gerbil with blonde hair, wearing a black tank top with white stripes, a pair of blue denim skinny jeans and sandals. It didn't take too long for them to realize who she is...and for Mike to become uncomfortable.

"Hey Ally! How was your summer?" Brian asked, happy to see a familiar face for a change. To say Ally hadn't changed much would be wrong. She had become quite the curvy woman with rumors spreading about other boys constantly hitting on her ever since she came to Elmore. She was quite the bombshell and even Mike was aware of it, but he was still Carrie's and wanted to be with her more than Ally.

"Oh, it's no biggie," Ally calmly replied. "But if it'll make you feel better, I did some hiking and rafting."

"That's great to hear!" Rhonda praised her cousin. "It's good to know that you're trying out new things."

"Well...I just wanted to make some changes before school started again," said Ally, before she turned her attention to Mike, at which point, her demeanor changed right away. "Oh, it's good to see you too."

With that, Ally turned around and went off to the other side of the cafeteria, leaving just the gang sitting at the table with their meals.

"After three years, you'd think she'd let it go and move on," Gumball spoke, breaking the silence from the group.

"I still don't like her," Carrie said in a cold, distrusting tone as she exited Mike.

"I'm sure she just wanted to say hi to us, that's all," Penny insisted to her friend.

"Besides, aren't you still upset after what happened when she moved here?" Darwin asked the ghost.

"She's the one who made the first move!" Carrie argued.

"Carrie," Mike spoke calmly, causing Carrie to look at him. "In any case, it's not important right now what her reasons for coming over here are." the maroon badger reasoned to try and calm Carrie down. "As much as I don't like being around her either, we can put the past away even if she can't." His words seemed to do the trick as Carrie seemed to understand.

"Fine, I'll try to be nice to her..." Carrie began. "But I won't make any promises. As long as she minds her own business, I'll mind mine."

"That's all I'll ask for," said Mike. The group then continued to eat lunch until the next class bell rang.

* * *

**Several hours later...**

The school bell rang for the last time, as every student left the premises as fast as they could, intending to go home and have a little rest and relaxation until the next day. It was an idea that Brian and his friends planned to do after enduring one long hour after another, dealing with teachers with unusual and eccentric personalities.

"I think fate played a cruel trick on us and decided to make us suffer for its own amusement," Brian suggested out loud.

"So our first day back in school wasn't a pleasant one," said Mike. "But we've been through worse." With all the craziness they've been through, everyone had to agree with their friend's statement. "Anyway, I've got to get to practice so I'll talk to you guys later," Mike said as his friends waved him off. Carrie and him kissed before he walked off towards the locker room to get ready.

"What Mike said is right. We've always been through one mishap after another," Darwin recalled some of their misadventures.

"But still, how are we going to deal with a disciplinarian and a teacher with bipolar disorder?" Gumball asked his friends.

"Let's figure that one out later," Penny replied, having understood Gumball's plight. "Let's just get back home and rest for now."

"I'm with Penny." Rhonda agreed. "I'm just going to take a shower, brush my teeth and sleep for the rest of the day."

"Not to mention forget everything else," Carrie added.

With everyone in agreement, the gang departed ways, heading back to their respective homes until tomorrow, though Brian decided to hang out with the Watterson brothers until he felt ready to head back.

* * *

After several long, grueling minutes of walking, the trio finally made their way back to the Watterson residence. The building hasn't changed that much, though Gumball, Darwin and their family could care less about it. It was their home and they liked it the way it is.

"Home sweet home," Darwin rejoiced, as he, Gumball and Brian made their way to the front porch and went inside, before they noticed a small rabbit sitting on the couch watching TV, wearing a pink dress with a Daisy the Donkey symbol on it and pink boots to match.

"Hi Anais," Gumball greeted his sister, as she turned and saw her two brothers and their friend. Anais had grown a little in height but not very much. Other than that, she was the same unbelievably intelligent little girl they all knew.

"Hey guys, how was the first day back at high school?" Anais asked out of curiosity.

"It was torture!" Darwin began to complain.

"Not to mention that the teachers are unpredictable!" Brian whined. "One is a porcupine that debatably has two completely different people living in his head and the other is a man straight out of Japan that puts you through the most grueling workouts known to anyone!" the purple fox explained, before quickly changing the subject. "What about you, Anais?"

"Boring. Extremely boring," Anais deadpanned. "Though I can't blame anyone but myself. After all: 'I'm the super smart little prodigy who thinks she knows more than the teachers'!" Anais said, mimicking an older man's voice. It was obvious that she had made a great impression on her teacher.

"Looks like you got it better than us," Gumball stated.

"I'm an eight year old girl. Like that teacher could do anything to me that wouldn't make himself look like a fool," Anais retorted.

"I'm going to say that didn't go well," Darwin guessed.

"It went over fine actually," Anais explained. "After I tricked him into making himself look unintelligent, we had no problems after that."

"I wish you were with us when we had to deal with our own classes," Brian said to the child prodigy. "At least then, we wouldn't be complaining too much about our day."

"Don't worry too much about it, Brian. I'm sure tomorrow will be better," Anais assured her friend, before she heard her favorite TV show. "Right now, I need you guys to stay quiet. Daisy the Donkey is about to start," The three groaned loudly as the theme started to play.

* * *

After hanging out at the Watterson residence for a few more hours, Brian bid his friends farewell before heading back home, opening the front door to let himself in, as he saw his parents in the living room, both noticing their son's presence right away.

"Brian, how was your day?" asked Gordon.

"I hope your first day didn't get off to a rough start," said Annie.

"...It wasn't what I had imagined." Brian finally explained. "My friends and I bumped into Principal McCaw this morning, and then we had some new teachers, with one straight out of Japanese samurai flick and the other who is quite unpredictable. Then, the day just got more bizarre from there. Other than that, that's pretty much it."

Gordon and Annie didn't respond right away, both trying to process what their son just told them, until finally, the pieces of the puzzle finally fit together.

"Sorry that your day had a rocky start," Gordon sympathetically told his son.

"I'm just surprised that Principal McCaw is still allowing you and your friends in school after that-"

"We agreed not to talk about that." Brian cut off his mother, still uncomfortable about that subject.

"Sorry about that, sport," Annie apologized. "Anyway, get some rest for tomorrow and who knows, tomorrow might turn out better."

"I'll do that," Brian agreed, before he went upstairs to his room.

* * *

**Later that night...**

The entire town of Elmore was peacefully asleep, blissfully unaware of what would transpire that night. At the O'Quinn residence, it was dead silent as the whole house slept. Brian, in particular, was having a very nice dream about Rhonda when he felt his shoulder start to burn and glow. It wasn't enough to wake him fully and had faded before he groggily awoke. He rubbed his shoulder but thought nothing of it and simply went back to sleep. But across town, Gumball, Darwin, Anais, Mike, Rhonda, Penny, and Carrie all felt the same burning and glowing sensation on different parts of their bodies while they slept. Little did they realize that tonight would change their entire lives forever.

_Next time on The Awaken_

_Chapter 2-The Beginning: Part 2_

_After a night that changed their lives without them noticing at first, the group discusses the effects...and the benefits._

**Tidbits**

**-Like The Newcomer, The Awaken will be quite long, in terms of plot development and story length. Unlike The Newcomer, however, The Awaken will be more action-oriented, with a mixture of drama and a strong continuity. In addition to this, the characters are aged up for this story.**

**-For the voices of McCaw, Tulip and Zack, I envisioned Shawn Wallace (the voice actor of Rex from the Toy Story films) Allyce Beasley (voice actor of Miss Grotke from Recess) and Phil Lamar (the voice actor of Samurai Jack). For the voice of Sam Pines, I simply imagine someone imitating the late Sam Kinison.**

**-I want to thank both Sal and my beta reader for their help! I really appreciate it very much!**

**That said, I hope everyone enjoyed the story so far. Let me know what you guys think so far in your reviews and I'll be seeing ya next chapter!**


	2. The Beginning: Part 2

**I'm so sorry for the unintentional, long hiatus, everyone! A lot of things had happened last week that prevented me from getting any chance to get the second chapter up earlier than I originally planned. But now that's in the past, I can now resume where I left off and I hope the wait was worth it for this chapter.**

**Anyway, read and enjoy!**

**The Awakened**

_An Amazing World of Gumball Story_

By NeoNimbus

Chapter 2-The Beginning: Part 2

The next morning, at the O'Quinn residence, Brian was sleeping peacefully in his bed, just wanting to remain that way, until he heard the alarm clock began to beep loudly, interrupting his dream.

"Stupid clock," the purple fox mumbled, before he slammed his fist on the clock. What happened next didn't turn out the way he expected. Instead of the clock shutting off, it suddenly began to spark, alarming Brian, as he quickly got up and saw said clock smoking, until after a few more seconds, it finally shut down.

'_That was weird,'_ Brian thought, before he got out of his bed and went straight to the bathroom. But then, some clothes on the floor suddenly clung to him, much to his annoyance. _'That never happened before!'_

Irritated by this, Brian pulled them off, only for the bed sheet to try and latch onto him too. Startled, he quickly ran out of his bed, barely avoiding the clothes and his sheets, before making his way to the bathroom.

"Alright Brian, calm down. I'm sure there's a rational...explanation..." he trailed off when he noticed something that shouldn't be there; on his right shoulder was the number 45, now etched into his fur like a tattoo, turning the fur it was on yellow in color instead of his normal purple.

"Where the hell did that come from?!" Brian shouted to no one in particular as he grabbed his shoulder. The fur felt normal with no difference at all. Brian began to breathe heavily as he looked at his shoulder through the mirror.

'_This isn't good. How am I going to explain this to my parents?'_ Brian thought, before his paw accidentally touched an electric toothbrush, causing it to activate. But what startled him is that said toothbrush had no batteries in it and wasn't even switched on, causing him to yelp. He then bumped into a razor which caused it to come alive as well before shutting off as Brian backed away from it.

"What's happening to me?" Brian asked quietly in shock as he began to doubt his own sanity.

As he tried to figure out his newfound predicament, he noticed the tattoo on his shoulder gave an eerie glow, which earned Brian's curiosity. The glow began to fade after a little while.

'_Somehow, this tattoo is the one behind it...I think,' _Brian ran to his room before being attacked by clothes again which he quickly dealt with. He threw on clean ones, making sure the tattoo couldn't be seen before going downstairs and making himself a pop-tart before his parents woke up.

"I need to tell my friends about this. I'll just tell them during lunch," Brian concluded, as he continued to run towards the bus stop to meet up with his friends and for the moment, pretend that nothing weird had happened.

* * *

After making his way to the bus stop, Brian noticed his friends looking a bit...out of it. Darwin's wrist was bandaged as if he hurt himself but there was no blood. Gumball was scratching his shoulder while Mike's arms were folded and his eyes shut as if he was lost in thought. It was the last thing that he was expecting to see upon his arrival and it seemed really weird, but right now, they could only wait and Brian figured it was as good a time as any to tell them about his morning. No one was around to disturb them here.

"H-Hey Brian," Darwin greeted, trying his best to look cheerful.

"Hey are you feeling okay?" Brian asked, as he arched an eyebrow in suspicion. "You don't seem to be yourself. And what happened to your flipper?"

"W-what are you talking about? Of course Darwin is himself," Gumball insisted to his confused friend.

"Are you sure?" Brian asked once again, unconvinced by Gumball's claim. "Why couldn't he answer it himself?"

"Brian, is there a reason why you're asking too many questions?" Mike demanded, trying to sound as calm he could.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe you found something on your body and suddenly freaked out after doing something unusual," Brian calmly replied. All three boys reacted in shock as if they found a dead body. They all looked pale as they looked at their friend in astonishment. Brian reacted similarly to them, unsure of what was going to happen. He couldn't believe his guess was right.

"H-How did you know?" Gumball asked shakily, still in a state of shock.

"I didn't know for sure but Darwin's wrapped arm and you holding your shoulder seemed suspicious. Not to mention that you were all acting really strange, as if something bad had happened," Brian explained, as he rubbed the back of his head. "Though I think your reactions cemented that you were hiding something." The three were astonished at how the purple fox figured all that out. "If it'll make you guys feel better, I got something to show you." he calmly replied, before he pulled the sleeve from his shirt down, revealing the number tattooed into his right shoulder.

"So we're not the only ones after all," said Darwin, as he and his friends felt some relief upon this discovery. Brian felt a little better himself, though he wasn't sure what all of it meant.

"I guess I might as well show you mine," Mike said as he grabbed his shirt collar and pulled it down as far as it could go. On his chest was a number tattoo as well, this one changing the fur on his chest green.

"Number 39?" Brian asked as Mike fixed his shirt.

"Gumball?" The blue feline rolled up his left sleeve to show a number 61 on his shoulder, this one changing his fur a fiery orange.

"Darwin?" Darwin unwrapped the bandage from his wrist, revealing a number 19, changing his scales an icy blue. Darwin quickly wrapped up his fin again after showing it.

"What the hell is going on around here?" Brian asked the trio.

"I don't know, but as I've just told these two..." Mike began. "We should keep this on the down low and inform no one that we don't trust completely."

"So I can tell Rhonda?" Brian asked.

"Rhonda? Oh yeah she's fine," Mike calmly replied, showing that he too trusted Rhonda with the secret.

"That's good to hear then," said Brian, before he noticed the bus coming by. "For now, let's just act like nothing is out of the ordinary until we meet up with everyone."

"Agreed," Mike and the Watterson brothers answered simultaneously, before the four went onto the bus.

* * *

Rhonda wasn't feeling like herself, especially when she saw something that she thought was some sort of prank. Somehow, a tattoo appeared on the palm of her left hand, which was the number ten, causing the fur that occupied it to turn white in color. What freaked her out even more was that she suddenly formed some sort of light construct before it quickly disappeared. After getting herself dressed up and grabbing a quick bite, Rhonda then decided to meet up with Penny and Carrie at the next bus stop, all the while trying not to act so suspicious.

"Alright Rhonda, just be as normal as you can," she muttered under her breath, as she reached the bus stop.

Once she arrived at her destination, Rhonda noticed that Penny and Carrie weren't acting like themselves. In fact, they acted way out of character; Penny's eyes were darting back and forth as if she was on guard, while Carrie held her sides and whistled nonchalantly. Something was going on and she was certain that they might have some answers.

"Are you two feeling alright?" asked Rhonda, startling the girls, before they realized that it was their friend who asked them.

"Y-Yeah, we're fine, Rhonda," Penny nervously replied.

"Ready for another day at school! Yessirree!" Carrie declared out loud, as she gave the mouse a wide smile. Rhonda, however, was hardly impressed. If anything it proved Carrie was the worst actor on the face of planet Earth.

"C'mon you two, I know you can do better than that." said Rhonda, as she crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow in suspicion, causing them to sigh, as they realize they've been had. "I'm your friend. You can trust me, can't you?" The girls looked at each other uneasily before looking back at Rhonda.

"Promise that you won't freak out, Rhonda?" asked Penny.

"I promise. Now go for it, Penny," Rhonda replied with a warm smile, as the deer pulled down her sock and reveal a tattoo on her ankle, which was the number 91 and the color on her normally light brown fur was bright red.

"Whoa, you weren't kidding," Rhonda admitted, before she turned her attention to Carrie. Carrie wasn't sure on how to proceed but just rubbed the left side of her abdomen.

"I-It's here," Carrie said quietly as she couldn't show hers in public for obvious reasons. "It was a number 44...and it's blue...dark blue," Carrie seemed a bit embarrassed.

"Don't be shy, Carrie. Just show it to me. Penny showed hers, so it would be fair if you do the same thing," Rhonda explained, hoping to convince the ghost to show her where the number is located.

"O...Okay," Carrie pulled up her tank top and just as she said, a dark blue number 44 was right where she said it was. Penny was shocked while Rhonda was more calm but she too felt a little surprised, before the ghost pulled her top down back down quickly afterwards.

"Now that you two came clean with me, I should come clean myself," Rhonda then showed her own tattoo to her friends, both surprised that she even has one to begin with.

"Rhonda, you too?!" Penny asked in amazement.

"I was wondering why you were so calm this morning," Carrie commented. She seemed a bit calmer herself. A thought then came to Rhonda's mind.

"How do you think the guys will react?" Rhonda asked.

"We can trust them, Rhonda. We've known them for quite some time," Penny assured her friend. "There's no way they'll turn their backs on us after what we've been through. Not over a few tattoos."

"Penny's right," Carrie agreed. "We just need to tell them at the right time. In fact, I think we should come clean with them during lunch." Rhonda thought the suggestion over for a little while.

"...You know, I think we should do just that," Rhonda eventually agreed, before she noticed the school bus pulling up. "But for now, let's pretend like nothing's out of the ordinary." The girls both nodded to their friend's advice before getting on the bus and finding their seats by their respective boyfriends.

* * *

The last few hours at Elmore Junior High proved to be much more complicated for the gang than they ever imagined. While the first two periods were uneventful as they continued to learn about Egypt of all places, PE was another story. They had to endure another set of grueling exercises, all the while trying to hide their tattoos from their classmates. Though for some reason it was much easier the second time around even though it was basically a repeat of the day before.

Biology was just a frustrating mess, due to Sam Pine's erratic and wild personality, barely keeping up the act that they were up and alert in class. Though they had to admit, he provided his own brand of entertainment just with how weird he was.

Finally, after what felt like a long time, Brian and his friends sighed with relief as lunch came around the corner, saving them from unimaginable agony and right now, they just want to get something to eat and come clean with one another.

'_Alright Brian, you can do this...'_ Brian began to think, as he put his lunch on his tray and headed off to meet up with his friends. _'After we eat, we'll tell the girls about our predicament. I'm sure they'll understand,'_ Brian finished his thought, just as he finally arrived at the table. It was then that he noticed that the girls were behaving a bit uncomfortable, much to not only his confusion but his friends' as well.

"Mike, notice anything... odd about them?" Brian whispered to his friend.

"Besides the obvious?" Mike admitted. "They are acting a bit weird."

"It's just like us this morning." Gumball quietly said.

"You guys don't think...?" Darwin asked as the thought occurred. But once he said it, then they were all thinking it.

While the boys are trying to figure out what was going on, the girls, in turn, noticed that they were acting strange themselves.

"Penny, what is up with them?" Rhonda whispered to the deer.

"Beats me Rhonda," Penny admitted. "They are acting odd, though Gumball is behaving more out of it than usual," Carrie then had a thought.

"Do you think they're hiding something?" Carrie asked her friends. Both Penny and Rhonda looked at her for a few seconds, before looking at each other. They both came to the same conclusion.

"Only one way to find out," Rhonda simply replied, before she turned to face the boys, around the same moment that Brian turned to face the girls.

"Are you hiding something from us?" the two asked one another simultaneously, gasping in surprise when they realize what the other just spoke.

"Ladies first," Brian jokingly suggested.

"Go ahead, I insist," Rhonda nervously said.

"Maybe the cafeteria isn't the best place to discuss something this important," Mike suddenly spoke. "Let's talk somewhere more private where no one else could see us."

Agreeing with the maroon badger's suggestion, the gang got up and left the cafeteria for somewhere discreet.

* * *

It took them a while, but eventually, the gang agreed on discussing the issue behind the gym; there were no security cameras back there, there were many bushes and trees right behind them, too thick for anyone to see and there were little, if any, spots to hide and hear. In other words, it is a total blind spot of the school.

"Now that we won't be bothered by anyone..." Gumball began. "We can finally come clean with one another."

"Gumball's right," Brian agreed. "I think I should show everyone what I can do."

The purple fox then shot out some electricity from his paws, able to barely manipulate it, before quickly shutting them off. As expected, his friends were quite amazed what he just pulled off just now.

"How did you do that?!" Rhonda asked in disbelief.

"That's a good question," Brian replied, before he pulled his sleeve up and revealed his number tattoo to his girlfriend, as well as to the girls who were shocked to see a number on Brian too.

"My turn I guess," Mike said as he picked up a few rocks off the ground and held them in his paw. Mike then began to focus, causing the rocks to take flight and spin around before Mike made them fly about fifty feet.

"You too?!" Carrie asked in amazement. He then pulled down his shirt to show his green number etched into his fur. Carrie, for her part, simply blushed upon seeing Mike's chest, but quickly shook her head.

'_Now's not the time!'_ Carrie thought, giving herself a mental slap.

"Looks like I'm up," said Gumball, as he formed a fireball in his paw. But almost immediately, his entire body was consumed, much to his shock.

"Aah! I'm on fire!" he fearfully shouted, as he ran around in a circle. Gumball jumped into a small pond that was nearby before coming out almost naked.

"Aah! My eyes!" Brian shouted with disgust, as he, as well as his friends, shielded their eyes, while Rhonda, Penny, and Carrie quickly turned around, unwilling to see Gumball in the buff. The blue feline quickly noticed that he was in his birthday suit and promptly leaped to the nearest bush.

"Oh man! I can't believe my power burned my clothes!"

"You want me to get your gym clothes?" Mike asked, as he refused to look in Gumball's direction.

"Right away! The last thing I want is being reported for indecent exposure!" Gumball frantically replied, before Mike went back to the school to get his friend his gym clothes.

After Mike returned with Gumball's clothes, they resumed with what they originally were doing.

"It's my turn then," said Darwin, as he concentrated at the pond that Gumball jumped into, before a little ball of water was suddenly in the air, as the two-legged fish was able to manipulate like it was nothing. Though it was only a small ball no bigger than a few drips put together, his friends were still amazed at the feat.

"I have to admit, that's pretty cool," Brian commented.

"Yeah, at least you can wash your face without touching the sink," Gumball agreed, as Darwin simply returned the few drips back to the lake.

"You know, Gumball, maybe that's not so bad," Darwin cheerfully said.

"Let's talk about that later," Mike informed his friend, before turning his attention to the girls. "We showed you three what we can do, so show us what you girls can do."

The girls looked at another, wondering who would be the first to step up and do the task. Eventually, after a while, Rhonda stepped forward, her mind made up.

"I'll go first then," Rhonda then closed her eyes, as a light suddenly began to form from her palm, before the light itself shape shifted into a ball, much to the boys' surprise...and eye pain from looking at a bright light.

"Wow...that's amazing Rhonda," Brian uttered in astonishment at what his girlfriend can do.

"Does anyone have eye drops? I think that light nearly blinded me," Gumball asked his friends, prompting both Darwin and Mike to elbow him.

"I guess I'll go," said Penny, before she closed her eyes and raised her arm at the boys. Within seconds, their eyes started to feel much better now, as if they have been restored in a matter of seconds.

"Thank goodness I can see again," Gumball spoke with relief. "Thank you so much, Penny!" Gumball hugged his girlfriend who hugged him back.

"Did...Did my vision get better? Everything seems a lot clearer than it did this morning," Mike commented as he looked around.

"I don't know about you, but the from my eyes just stopped," said Darwin.

"Looks like I'm up," said Carrie, as she focused her attention on a tree and pushing her hand forcibly in its direction, a gush of air suddenly formed, pushing countless leaves off of the branches and sent flying off, riding the breeze.

"You can control air?" Gumball asked the ghost.

"To be honest, I was expecting something spooky," Darwin stated. A smile formed on Mike's face and Carrie instantly knew what he was thinking.

"Mike, don't you dare make that joke!" Carrie scolded her boyfriend. Mike knew he was caught.

"Okay! I'm sorry!" Mike seemed genuinely sorry that his mind even thought that up.

"I thought so," Carrie said with a smirk.

"So where are your numbers, girls?" Brian asked, hoping to change the subject quickly before Mike gets in more hot water. In response, Rhonda showed her number from her left hand, while Penny revealed hers from her ankle. Carrie was the only one hesitant to show where her number is.

"Carrie, aren't you going to show your number?" asked Darwin. Carrie grabbed her upper abdomen and began to rub where her number was. Mike was the first to catch on.

"Kind of an embarrassing spot to be sure," Mike commented with a smirk. "Okay so it's on your stomach. What number is it?" Mike seemed content with Carrie's word alone. He didn't need proof. Same went for Brian, Gumball, and Darwin once they caught on.

"It's 44 and it's blue," Carrie said calmly.

"Well then we'll take your word for it!" Mike said as Brian, Gumball, and Darwin all agreed. "It would be kinda embarrassing for you to have to show us."

"Thanks Mike," Carrie said to her boyfriend, relieved that she didn't need to physically show where her number is.

"So now that we managed to clear things up with each other, here's another question: what about our family?" Brian asked his friends.

"I think the obvious is this; we'd probably be in some deep crap if our parents found out we had tattoos...let alone the powers that came with them," Mike figured.

"Not to mention what the government might do if they caught wind of this," Rhonda added.

"So we should just keep this between ourselves?" Penny asked, unsure of what might come of these developments.

"Right," Mike answered.

"Makes sense," Gumball believed. "If one of us blabs, then we all get in trouble, including the one that talked!"

"This seems so risky," Darwin said quietly, clearly overwhelmed.

"Unfortunately Darwin, we don't have much of a choice," Brian explained to his confused friend. "Either we keep this a secret or we suffer a fate worse than death."

"Experimentation and possible dissection at a government facility in the middle of the Nevada desert," Mike joked, making sure the point was made clear.

"Alright guys, you made your point," Darwin reluctantly agreed.

Just then, the gang heard the school bell rang, much to their surprise, since they never realized that much time had passed since they demonstrated their new powers to each other.

"Looks like we need to head back to our class before Principal McCaw spots us," Gumball informed his friends, before they headed straight to their next period.

* * *

After several hours had passed, the school bell rang for the last time, as students headed back home for the day, including the gang, as they agreed to just rest at home for now. Gumball and Darwin, in particular, just wanted to forget today's events for now, as the brothers made their way back home. Mike went to practice but couldn't focus fully on what was going on, much to the team's annoyance. Carrie and Penny both went home with differing opinions on the situation. Brian went home and stared at the ceiling for the longest time until his cell phone rang.

"Hello?" Brian asked as he picked up his cell phone.

"Hey Brian, it's me," It was Rhonda on the other end. She sounded a bit shaky.

"Hey Rhonda, what's up?" Brian asked his girlfriend, before he realized her tone was far from happy. "What's wrong?"

"...Everything," Rhonda finally replied. "Ever since that you, me and our friends got these powers, I don't know what to think. Sure Elmore has been a sight for the bizarre and unusual, but this is entirely different. What if we can't get things to go back to the way they were?" Rhonda sounded on the verge of crying, something Brian was not accustomed to.

"Do...Do you want to talk in person?" Brian asked softly, hoping she'd say yes.

"That's actually a good idea. Drop by when you get the chance," Rhonda replied.

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Brian informed his girlfriend, before they both hung up and the fox went out to the front door and towards the Paxton residence.

* * *

It was rather quiet at the Paxton residence upon arrival, though considering that Max was at work, it would make sense. Still, Brian promised his girlfriend that he would be here, and he would never turn his back on her when she needed him. With one deep breath, Brian marched to the front porch and rang the doorbell, as he waited patiently for Rhonda to show up.

'_I hope she's alright,'_ Brian thought, before the front door opened to find his girlfriend standing in front of him.

"Thanks for dropping by," Rhonda said to her boyfriend. "I can use some company for the moment."

"I said I would come here and here I am," Brian stated, wanting to show he honored his promise. "By any chance, does your dad know I was coming here?"

"Don't worry about it. I told him what was going on before he left. He seemed quite cool with it," Rhonda explained.

"That's a relief," Brian felt much better when he heard that part.

"Please, come in," Rhonda stepped aside to allow her boyfriend into her home. She then led Brian to the couch so they could sit and talk about what Rhonda was going through. The first thing Brian did was make sure she was comfortable as he draped his arm around her shoulder, which she in turned inched closer to him as the two leaned back into the couch comfortably.

"This sure brings back memories," Brian whispered to Rhonda.

"Hard to believe we sat on this very same couch three years ago," Rhonda commented, feeling a bit better around her boyfriend.

"It was around the time that I visited your place for the first time..." Brian began. "You still look good in that getup your other friends made you wear."

"I still can't believe I actually agreed to do that," Rhonda mumbled in annoyance, before she calmed down. "Still, I was just glad to see you that day, even if I did have to wear that dress for the day."

The two were content with just snuggling next to each other, enjoying the other's warmth, both wishing that this could last for as long as they wanted. Suddenly, Brian's phone began to ring again. Brian sighed in annoyance as the moment was now ruined.

"Hello?" Brian asked in a slightly irritated tone.

"Brian, get over here! Quickly!" Gumball said from the other line. "And tell Rhonda too if you could!"

"Wait Gumball what-" But before Brian could finish, Gumball immediately hung up, leaving Brian and Rhonda confused about the situation. "He hung up on me!"

"Well let's go see what was so urgent," Rhonda suggested as the two got up from their comfortable position to head for the Watterson house.

* * *

For the Watterson brothers, all they wanted to was just rest in their bedroom. At least, that was the plan, until they both arrived home and couldn't believe what they had discovered. Out of concern, he immediately picked up his phone and called everyone related to what was going on right away; just praying that one of them would show up as soon as possible. To his luck, they all five of them did. All seven were standing in the backyard, with no one around to hear the conversation.

"Gumball, what's going on?" Brian asked his friend, concerned with how urgent his call was.

"What was so urgent? Did you light your dad on fire?" Mike joked.

"This is no time for jokes, Mike! This is serious!" Darwin berated the maroon badger.

"Darwin's right! We all called you here because of Anais!" Gumball informed his friends, shocked to hear what he just said to them.

"What happened to your sister?" asked a concerned Penny.

"Did she get injured or something?" Carrie asked her friends. But before they could answer her question, one tiny voice suddenly answered it for them.

"Not really," All seven turned to the direction of the voice, as they saw Anais, who somehow was suddenly floating in the air. "I got a little above the ground."

"No, not you too," Mike deadpanned in disbelief

"Unfortunately Mike, it's true," Gumball said to his friend. "Anais is just like us." Anais pulled off her right shoe and sock to show a purple number 34 on her foot.

"Just what is going on around here?" Brian asked in confusion. "Is there some psycho just giving these things away?"

"Okay so that's eight of us running around with number tattoos?" Penny asked, as they stared at Anais' number. Then a thought came to Mike.

"Anais! You may want to land in case someone sees you!" Mike said in a quiet voice as to not alert the neighbors.

"Sorry," Anais sheepishly apologized, before she landed safely on the grass. "But seriously, that was the most awesome thing to ever happen to me!"

"That doesn't mean you can go blabbing about it!" Rhonda stated sternly.

"Rhonda's right, Anais..." Penny began. "Have you ever thought how your parents would have reacted if they saw you just now? What if someone saw what you did and alerted the media?"

Anais attempted to counter this claim, but slowly, Penny's words started to sink into her and the child prodigy began to process what the deer just told her. Eventually, she turned her attention to Penny, ready to respond to her question.

"I'm really sorry, you guys. I guess I got so excited I didn't even consider the consequences until now. Don't worry, my lips are sealed," Anais reassured them.

"That's really good to hear," Brian said with a sigh of relief.

"Oh would you like to see what I did to the toaster?!" Anais excitedly asked, putting everyone on edge. "I've rigged it to cook toast twice as fast!"

"You did what?" Gumball fearfully asked, as he and his friends backed a few inches away, much to Anais' annoyance.

"Don't be like that, you guys. If it'll make you feel any better, I'll demonstrate it." Anais said calmly, though it only caused them more worry as she went to the shed and came out with the toaster in hand.

"Did you invent a blast shield while you were in there?" Mike asked, wanting some protection from possible debris.

"I'm still trying to figure out how to prevent Gumball's clothes from exploding," Anais replied, as Mike face palmed in annoyance.

"That's not very reassuring then," said Darwin.

"I guess we'll have to do the old fashion way," Brian suggested

* * *

As all of them hid behind the shed wearing pots, pans, and anything that could be used for a helmet, Anais set the bread in the toaster and turned it on. She then stood right next to the toaster, completely sure that she's right. And in no time flat, the toast popped up, golden brown and hot to the touch.

"Toast anyone?" Anais asked with a smirk.

For their part, the gang was left dumbfounded by what they just witnessed. The toaster didn't blow up in their faces and it appeared that Anais had actually built something that didn't try to kill them and for a while, they seemed to let out a sigh of relief upon this sight.

'_I don't believe it! It actually worked!'_ Brian thought.

"So who's going to eat first?" Darwin nervously asked his friends.

"Me I guess," Mike replied, as he walked up and took a bite fearlessly. "It's not half bad. Just needs butter." the maroon badger commented.

"Note to self: make more adjustments to the toaster with auto butter," Anais said to herself as she walked over to the gang..

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Brian asked Gumball.

"Honestly, it's hard to tell," the blue feline replied. "Whatever she invents always has an unpredictable nature behind them."

"Maybe she got better at them," Penny figured. "I mean, this one worked without as much as a hiccup." They all had to agree with that.

"At least the backyard is in one piece," Carrie pointed out.

"None of us are hurt," Rhonda stated.

"And I got fed toast!" Mike concluded with a smile as he took another bite.

Without warning, the toaster unexpectedly exploded in a matter of seconds, nearly enveloping the entire backyard. By the time the explosion settled down, it was a total wreck, with the shed being completely demolished, everyone covered in ash, their improvised armor scattered all over the place and an impact crater where the toaster once stood, with Mike being injured the most. Anais herself instinctively floated high enough to avoid the explosion, before she landed down and saw several glares from her friends.

"Um...oops?" the child prodigy sheepishly apologized. Mike then groaned as he pushed himself up. Despite being right next to the toaster when it exploded, he seemed no worse for wear then if he had been hit with a water balloon filled with soot.

"Ow...How did I survive that?" Mike asked as he rubbed his head.

"I don't know, but how is it that the explosion was only contained in this backyard?" Brian asked, as he helped keep Mike steady.

"It's a miracle that it didn't wipe out the entire house," Rhonda commented.

"Darwin..." an injured Gumball began. "Remind me not to let something like this happen again."

"Agreed," Darwin weakly stated, before he and his brother collapsed to the ground unconscious.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to head home, take a shower and get a good night sleep," said Penny.

"Same here," Rhonda stated.

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, as they departed back to their respective homes, while Anais ended up using her powers to lift her brothers into the house, before she turned around and saw the damaged backyard.

'_I'll take care of that tomorrow,'_ Anais thought, before she went back inside with her unconscious brother.

"I'm gonna go home before more stuff blows up in my face," Mike said as he made for the fence leading to the front yard.

"I'll see you guys at school tomorrow," Carrie said as she flew off towards her boyfriend.

"You too Carrie," said Brian, as he left the backyard and walk straight towards Rhonda's house with her in tow. The two walked hand in hand all the way there. "I'll see you tomorrow, Rhonda."

"I wish I didn't have to wait so long," Rhonda said affectionately.

"Was that line made of cheese?" Brian joked as they both laughed. Rhonda and Brian had a quick kiss before she went inside and Brian went home, hoping that he could get a shower and avoid getting asked awkward questions from his parents.

Though all eight of them were separated for the time being, they were all thinking the same thing:

'_What will they do now?'_

* * *

**On the outside of town...**

Two cloaked figures stood on a cliff overlooking the town of Elmore.

"You think they might be here?" One asked the other.

"Da," the other answered in his Russian accent. "He said to go here as this is where he detected them,"

"Fine," the first one responded. "Leave it to me," With that, the cloaked figure disappeared, leaving the Russian by himself.

"Let us see how this plays out..."

_Next time on The Awaken_

_Chapter 3-The OverHundred_

_Brian and his friends try to enjoy a typical day as usual, but reality sinks in for them in the form of a dangerous individual._

**Tidbits**

**-When coming up with the powers for Brian and the gang, we decided to go with a different angle of how they obtained said powers and the kinds of powers that they'll be using for the rest of the story.**

**-I want to thank Sal for coming up with the concept of the Numbers and believe me when I say this; they do play an important role in The Awaken.**

**I want to thank everyone who's enjoying this so far and I'll be seeing ya next chapter!**


	3. The OverHundred

**The Awakened**

_An Amazing World of Gumball Story_

By NeoNimbus

Chapter Three-The OverHundred

The next morning at the O'Quinn residence, Brian hit the alarm clock like always, only for a jolt of electricity to short-circuit it, causing it to fritz, before it ceased to work and alerted the tired fox.

'_Note to self: get a shock-proof clock,'_ Brian thought, as he got up, before clothes lying on the floor immediately latched onto him, causing him to sigh. _'Other note to self: put away clothes from now on.'_

"Brian, breakfast is ready!" Annie called from downstairs.

"Coming mom!" Brian called back, before he removed the clothes from his body and immediately made his way into the closet.

But as he prepared himself for another day at school, he remained unaware of a falcon watching from afar.

'_Well, this is going to be interesting. Looks like my prey is of the fox variety,'_ the bird thought, before he teleported out of sight.

* * *

After the bus dropped him and his friends off to their school, Brian decided to lighten up the mood among the group, hoping that they could at least forget about their discovery for a moment.

"So, was anyone else paying attention to Ms. Tulip's history lesson yesterday about King Tut?"

"It's...alright I guess," Darwin replied. "Hard to believe he was that young when he became pharaoh."

"Still, he must have been feeling the pressure when he was chosen," Penny commented.

"Anyway, why do you ask?" Gumball asked his friend.

"Yeah it doesn't seem like you're bringing this up just because you wanted a refresher course on our history class," Mike explained as he looked at Brian.

"If I didn't know any better, I'm saying you're just only saying this because of what happened yesterday, am I right?" asked Carrie. Brian gulped in response, amazed that the ghost managed to deduce that.

"Look, I just wanted to change the subject. There's no reason to be uncomfortable after yesterday's freak out."

"Brian, I get it that you want to get us in a good mood, but we don't feel like it right now," Rhonda explained to her boyfriend, before she heard the first bell rang. "Listen, let's get to our classes right now and just pretend like nothing ever happened."

Everyone from the group agreed, before the seven quickly walked upstairs to get to Ms. Tulip's class on time. Meanwhile, from a distance, the falcon spied on the group from a far with a pair of binoculars, as he arched an eyebrow with interest.

"Well now, I have more prey than I thought," the falcon spoke with amusement. "And they're all in one spot?! It must be Christmas!"

* * *

For the next few hours at Elmore High School, the gang went through their usual day, from Ms. Tulips history lessons, to surviving gym a third time, to paying attention in biology class until it was time for lunch. As the seven grabbed their lunches and went down to sit at the nearest table, there was nothing but uneasiness and discomfort from the gang and for Brian, it was starting to get under his nerves.

'_Are they going to be like this all the time?!'_ Brian thought in frustration, as he sat down with his friends. _'What is it going to take to convince them that we're still the same people like we always were?'_

"Brian, are you alright?" Darwin asked his friend, snapping the fox back to reality.

"I'm fine," Brian lied, before turning his attention to Mike. "How was your football practice, Mike?" Brian asked as he tried to get any kind of conversation going.

"I need new wide-receivers; the last guy had the ball knocked out of his hands and it landed right into another defender's," Mike said in a normal volume with a bit of annoyance in his voice.

"Sorry it didn't turn out the way you wanted," Brian sympathized with his friend, before turning his attention to Gumball. "Did you manage to tell your folks why you were wearing only gym clothes yesterday?"

"It was a bit complicated, but I told them that I couldn't find my other outfit because some bullies stole it from me," Gumball answered in a pretty down voice but he looked like he wanted to be happy. "It was hard coming up with a story to convince Mom. She could smell a lie within a minute."

"Knowing what Mrs. Watterson is capable of, I'm amazed she didn't know about the tattoo right away," Brian commented.

"Now that you mention it, we have to be extra careful around her from now on," Darwin realized what Brian was talking about.

"Brian, I know you're trying to help but..." Rhonda began, but before she could say anything more, the lights went out in the whole school.

"Ha! "State of the art school" my ass!" Mike shouted as the whole cafeteria became alive with conversation about the lights.

"Good to see that the construction crews forgot how to put in good wiring," Carrie nonchalantly stated.

"What's going on?" Penny asked her friends. "Do you think the power in town went out?"

"No, then we would have switched over to the back-up generator," Brian said as he remembered seeing the room it was in before and having an interesting conversation with Rocky about the subject.

"Is it possible someone sabotaged the generators?" Gumball theorized to his friends.

"Are you sure you're not exaggerating that?" Darwin asked his brother.

"Maybe Gumball's onto something," Rhonda quickly spoke, much to everyone's surprise. "Think about it: security should have dealt with whoever was responsible right now and the lights should have gone back up by now."

"But why would someone do that, especially to a high school of all things?" Carrie asked her friend. Suddenly, as they were talking, a few security guards ran by, heading towards the generator room.

"Looks like Gumball's guess was right after all," Mike admitted, though he hated to do such a thing.

"Anyone else wants to get a quick peek of the perp?" Brian asked.

"Why would we want to do that?" Penny asked, a bit shocked that the fox would suggest something like that.

"Something tells me that there's more to this than meets the eye, especially since we got our powers yesterday," Brian explained to the deer.

"But what if someone sees us leaving here?" Darwin pointed out.

"Let's worry about that later," Brian attempted to calm his friend. "So who's with me?" The group looked at each other in silence for a little bit and as it dragged on, Brian started to feel less and less confident.

"Eh, why not," Mike answered with a shrug and a smile.

"If Mike's in, then I'm in," said Carrie.

"Us too!" Gumball and Darwin proclaimed.

"Same here!" Penny stated.

"Don't worry Brian, we're right behind you," Rhonda assured her boyfriend, causing him to smile.

"So it's settled then, let's do this!" Brian declared, before he and his friends quietly left their table and followed the security guards, hoping to confront whoever was responsible for the mess.

* * *

Following the security guards was a bit trickier than the gang thought, as they had to quickly hide each time one of them suspected something and with seven of them, they weren't exactly stealthy. Despite this, however, they remained determined to reach their goal, as the gang continued onwards, following the security guards for what seemed like hours. Eventually, the seven stopped dead in their tracks, having finally arrived at their destination. To their surprise, the basement was much larger than it appeared, with a giant steel door that served as the only way in and out. The railing they were looking down from was about twenty feet up from the floor and had two staircases leading down. They could also hear a few machines working inside and could hear the security guards wandering around within.

"What kind of basement is this?!" Gumball exclaimed quietly with surprise.

"I don't know Gumball, but it must have taken at least a million dollars to afford this," Penny estimated.

"This looks more like a military base than a public school," Brian noted.

"The intruder is in here somewhere! Find him!" One of the guards ordered.

"Intruder huh? So it is sabotage," Mike stated.

"Told you so!" Gumball gloated, prompting the irate badger to punch him in the face, as the blue feline rubbed his nose in pain.

Just then, the gang heard what appeared to be a few punches, as one security guard yelped in pain, prompting his fellow guards to come to his aid. Before long, more sounds of punching were heard, attacking each and every one of them, until the last guard gasped in pain before losing consciousness.

"W-What was that about?" asked a startled Darwin.

"This!" A voice behind them shouted. They all turned to see the voice before it tackled Gumball and sent them both over the railing, much to their horror.

"Gumball!" Brian shouted as he watched his friend fall with the intruder.

"Don't worry, I got this!" Carrie shouted, as she teleported in a blink of an eye, before coming back with Gumball a few seconds later.

"That was a close one," Gumball spoke with relief.

"Wait a minute, where did that guy go?!" Mike noted.

"I didn't see him with Gumball," Carrie admitted.

"Whoever he is, we'd better get moving then," Rhonda suggested, before the group headed off.

"Somehow, I miss the good old days," Brian confessed to Mike.

"Yeah," Mike agreed. "Back then, we had less people trying to kill us!"

But once they made it all the way downstairs, the group stopped right in their tracks when a mysterious figure appeared right in front of them, before revealing himself in full. He was a falcon, wearing a red and black sweater, grey pants and green pair of goggles resting on top of his head. It didn't take too long for them to realize it was the same person that tackled Gumball from the railings.

"C'mon now, I was just having fun," the falcon joked with a tone of sarcasm.

"Fun? You consider attacking me as FUN?! I was almost killed because of you!" Gumball angrily retorted.

"But you're alive now, aren't you?" the falcon asked as if it was nothing. "Still, I was expecting much more from you kids."

"Who are you and what do you want?" Brian demanded an answer out of him.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. The name's Miles Evanidus and I don't want much, other than killing you kids on the spot," His right wing suddenly began to glow gold and the number 115 appeared.

"He's got a number too!" Gumball shouted in disbelief.

"Yes, but unlike you, I am of a higher breed; the OverHundreds! You Numbers should be aware of what we are capable of because by the time I done with you kids, you won't even see it coming!"

The gang was taken aback when Miles calmly told them this, before they regained their composure, with Mike being the first to talk back at the falcon, as he put himself in a fighting position.

"You want a fight? You got one!"

"About time!" Miles joyfully shouted, before he quickly disappeared right in front of the gang.

"Where did he go?" Rhonda asked her friends.

"I'm right here, girlie," Miles replied, before he swung a fist behind her back and disappeared in seconds and reappeared behind Mike. "Nope, I'm here." Miles then sweep kicked the maroon badger before disappearing once more.

"How is he doing this?" asked Brian, as he helped his girlfriend up.

"Looks like that number of his is doing the trick, but we need to stop him right now," Mike replied, as he got up. "We need to find a way to keep him from doing it."

"If you're looking for me, then here I am!" Miles announced himself, as the gang turned and saw the falcon in front of them.

"Get him!" Gumball shouted, before he and his friends quickly leaped towards him. But this attempt was futile, however, as Miles quickly disappeared in an instant, prompting everyone to fall on top of each other instead. Brian accidentally placed his hand on an electrical box and felt the energy in it flow into him.

"Whoa!" Brian said but before he could think anything over, he saw his friends needing his help.

"So close," Miles mockingly told in front of them, as they got up and dashed towards the arrogant falcon. But just like their first attempt, he disappeared once again, recreating the same solution, before Miles showed up behind them.

"You almost got me back there!"

Undaunted, the seven regained their composure and tried to nab Miles, but each time they make this attempt, the falcon would disappear and reappear in random parts from the basement. No matter what they tried, none of them were able to keep up with his pace and right now, they were starting to wear out from the constant exertion.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Brian said as he tried to catch his breath.

"Agreed! Time I at least kill one of you!" Miles said as he dove from the ceiling onto Brian, though he would come to regret doing that as Brian looked up and instinctively put his hands up to guard himself, causing Miles to receive a large electric shock from the charged up fox.

"Brian..." a shocked Rhonda began. "How did you do that?"

"I don't know, I just did!" Brian replied, just as shocked as his girlfriend. "Guys, I think I know how we can defeat him. We have to use our powers."

"Right now?" asked a surprised Gumball, before he rubbed his head. "I don't know, Brian."

"This is no time to be hesitant, Gumball," Mike scolded his friend. "Besides, we don't have any other options."

"T-that was...shocking..." Miles said as he got to his feet again. "No matter, I'm not going to fall for that same trick again," Miles then flew straight towards Brian once more, but before he could even reached him, Rhonda suddenly got in front of him and raised her hand, as a bright light covered his face.

"Gah! I can't see!" Miles shrieked in agony, before being punched in the face by a light constructed boxing glove.

"That's for trying to kill my boyfriend!" Rhonda shouted.

Dazed but not downed, Miles wandered around for a mere few seconds before he suddenly felt a burning sensation from his body. Someone is shooting fire at him and he barely has time to dodge.

"How do you like your bird: rare, medium or well-done?" Gumball jokingly suggested much to Darwin's displeasure.

"Really Gumball? You can do better than that," Darwin berated his brother.

While Miles attempted to put out the fire from his sweater, the falcon suddenly heard some rumblings beneath him and without warning, small parts of the broken concrete bombarded him, sending him upwards. Before he could comprehend on what had occurred, a gush of air shot right at him, sending him towards a wall, before slamming hard and falling hard to the ground face first.

"Quick thinking back there, you guys!" Brian praised both Mike and Carrie.

"Don't let up! Keep on the attack!" Mike ordered, snapping Brian back into it.

Nodding his head in agreement, Brian unleashed some electricity at Miles, who by this point, was barely conscious, but was able to regain his composure, albeit rather painfully. Once the shock wore off, Miles looked around with confusion on his face, before looking at Brian and his friends, all of them looking at him with a menacing look.

'_Who are these people? More importantly, who am I? What's going on?'_ Miles thought.

Before he could comprehend on the whole situation, Miles involuntarily teleported away, avoiding another electric blast, while the gang could only look on with astonishment.

"Looks like he won't be coming back anytime soon," Carrie stated.

"Considering that we whooped his ass, I say he got the message," Gumball said with a smirk.

"It looked more like he didn't know what was going on or who we were," Mike noted.

"I'm just glad that was done and over with," Penny spoke with relief.

"Hello, who's out there?" One of the security guard called out, much to the gang's dismay.

"Oh no! What do we do?! If they find us here, we'll be in trouble!" Darwin horrifyingly exclaimed.

"Gather around with me, you guys. We'll be out of here before they know it," Carrie instructed.

Agreeing with the ghost, the six gathered around her, before Carrie closed her eyes and before long, a light enveloped the entire group, followed by a quick flash, leaving no traces of the gang.

* * *

In a matter of seconds, Brian and his friends soon found themselves back in the school cafeteria, making it looked like they haven't left the table. More importantly, most of their fellow peers didn't seem to notice their absence, much to their relief. However, the lights within the cafeteria, as well the entire school, were still shut off as the power had yet to come back.

"That was a close call," said Rhonda.

"Yeah, I'm glad I was able to control my teleportation better," Carrie acknowledged.

"Yeah that wasn't exactly a soft bush to land in," Gumball pointed out.

"Just be glad we didn't get teleported into McCaw's office," Brian stated.

"That would've been funny as hell! We probably would've given the poor guy a heart attack!" Mike chuckled to himself.

"Mike, that's terrible!" Penny scolded him.

"It's fine, Penny," Darwin stated. "What's important is that we made it back here safe and sound without any problems," Darwin happily said.

Just then, the lights went back on, much to everyone's relief, but for the gang, they were just glad that they made it out from an experience they would rather forget.

* * *

The next few hours were quite uneventful, aside from conversations about the surprising blackout and rumors of what was down in the basement. Eventually, the school bell rang, signaling the end of the day, as everyone left the premises, including the gang themselves, preparing to go home for some rest and relaxation, at least until tomorrow came around the corner.

"Talk about a long day," Brian stated out loud.

"That's an understatement back there," Mike countered.

"On the other hand, we did use our powers and for once, it actually felt good," said Gumball, to which everyone nodded their heads in agreement. Just then, Brian noticed Rhonda who looked like she was deep in thought.

"What's wrong, Rhonda?" Brian asked. Rhonda quickly snapped back to reality after hearing her boyfriend's voice.

"It's just that...what that Miles guy said..." Rhonda began, though she appeared to be shaken as what he said rolled back into her mind.

"Now that you mention it, he did called us Numbers and referred to his 'kind' as the OverHundreds," Brian understood what his girlfriend was thinking about and was just as disturbed about this information. But then Brian felt a bit of dread wash over him. _'It took all seven of us to take that guy down and even then we didn't get rid of him for good! Are we in over our heads here?'_

"Guys!" Darwin called out, snapping both Brian and Rhonda back to reality. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Brian quickly lied. "Just a bit tired."

"Yeah, we could use a break after what we've been through," Rhonda played along with her boyfriend, both deciding to keep their own thoughts to themselves for now.

"Oh, alright then," Darwin happily accepted his friends' answers.

"So what now?" Penny asked her friends.

"You know, how about if we just hang out at my place for a while?" Gumball suggested. "We could tell about our experiences to Anais and maybe she can help us out."

"You know, that's not a bad idea," Carrie agreed. "Maybe your sister might suggest something in case we might run into some trouble like today."

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, before they set off to the Watterson residence, intending to tell Anais about what had transpired.

* * *

**On the outskirts of Elmore...**

Within a dark cave, the mysterious cloaked figure sat down on a rock, cooking up what appeared to be a dead lizard on a stick, as he roasted it on a fire, waiting for it to become tender and crispy. For the stranger, anything can be food, no matter what. But hunger was the least of his concern; he had been waiting for Miles for a long time and he hadn't shown up since last night.

'_What's taking him so long? I knew I shouldn't have sent him off alone.'_

As if to answer his question, a certain falcon made his way inside the cave, much to the stranger's surprise. But what was more startling was that Miles had a look of bewilderment on his face, as if appeared to be quite traumatized.

"Miles, where the hell have you been?"

"I-Is that my name?" Miles asked in confusion.

"Oh god! What did they do to you down there!?" the Russian voice demanded but he received no answer as Miles finally passed out. "Looks like he won't be of further use," the Russian then picked up his device from the pocket and activated it. "Sir, it looks like we may have a problem. My associate suffered amnesia while tracking down the Numbers. It's going to be a while before the problem is dealt with. I can also use some extra hands as well."

"Very well," the voice reluctantly agreed. "I'll send you some on the way, but call me back when the job is done,"

"I will, sir, I will," the stranger simply responded, before turning the device off and stared at the ceiling. "So the hunt is on? Fine, let's see them try to hide from me." the Russian said as stared towards the town.

With their scout out, he had no idea where to start looking. But he could only make a guess for now.

* * *

After arriving at the Watterson residence, Gumball, along with his friends, revealed to Anais of their experiences at Elmore High School, including their discovery of another individual with a similar number and the discovery of a mysterious group called the OverHundreds. Once each and every one were done telling with their story, Anais, after hearing all of this for almost half an hour, was quite amazed by what she just have heard.

"Wow, I have to be honest; this feels like something straight out of a movie."

"I know it sounded farfetched, but that's exactly what happened during school," Brian insisted.

"After what we've been through for the last three years, anything is possible," Anais assured her friend. "In fact, I think I got some good ideas to help you guys out."

"Just like that toaster you made from last night?" Mike pointed out as he rubbed the side of his face.

"You want me to kiss it and make it better?" Carrie teased when she saw Mike rubbing his face.

"Focus please?" Rhonda asked the two before Carrie planted a quick kiss on Mike's cheek. "So Anais, what are these ideas?"

"Let me just say that they can help you guys in case you guys get into another jam," Anais simply replied. "I just need one week to finish them!"

The gang could only groan in response, dismayed to hear this from the child prodigy.

"Can't you do it right now?" Gumball demanded, prompting Darwin to elbow him in the stomach.

"Gumball, just be patient," Darwin scolded his brother. "Sure it's going to be a while, but the wait might be worth it."

"Well...It's just that I don't have any of them finished and then I have to work out the bugs and stuff-"

"Anais, I think that's a bit over our heads if you go into the technicals," Penny figured.

"Penny's got a point," Brian agreed. "Just simplify what you're telling us so we can understand."

"Alright, let me rephrase that again," Anais agreed, before she offered them an explanation. "I require certain materials for my latest projects. You can say that they need to be top of the line."

"And you plan on getting these...?" Mike asked, afraid she might answer.

"Of course not, Mike. I'm just going to use some basic tools, shop around town to use them and improvise on whatever I could get my hands on. It's not much, but they're effective."

"I don't know if I should be amazed or be afraid," Brian nervously commented.

"Try both," Gumball informed him, before he noticed that his sister was looking at them.

"You guys worry too much. Just give me a chance and who knows, you might like them."

"We don't even know what you're making," Carrie reminded her.

"If I tell you what it is, it wouldn't be a secret," Anais remarked. "Just trust me, that's all I'm asking," the group of friends looked at each other, unsure of what to think.

"...Alright Anais, we'll give this a shot," Brian reluctantly agreed. "Just promise us that there won't be any more explosions."

"I promise there will be no more unintentional explosions!" Anais said innocently.

"Wait, what?" Darwin asked.

"I hope whatever she's making doesn't turn into another bomb," Rhonda remarked.

"Let's wait until next week to find out for ourselves," Mike simply said. "Though I doubt it's something we'll be looking forward to."

_Next time on The Awakened..._

_Chapter 4-The Masks_

_Brian and his friends test out Anais' latest project when an OverHundred unexpectedly shows up to attack the town._

**Tidbits**

**-For this chapter, Sal and I decided to show some actions scenes for this story and I'll admit, this is my first attempt. Still, if anyone wants to give out an honest criticism regarding this, then I don't mind.**

**-Who exactly are the OverHundreds? Well...it's a secret, but as the story progresses, their history will eventually be explored, including their motives.**

**I hope everyone enjoyed reading this and I'll be seeing ya next chapter! :D**


	4. The Masks

**Sorry for the repost, but Sal and I both wanted to apologize for causing a panic attack to begin with. Apparently, we learned that SOPA, at the moment, is on a indefinite hiatus and for those who are curious to know more, here's a link that can clear up a few things:**

**fyeahcopyright. tumblr post/79469570688/dont-sign-a-petition-to-keep-roleplay-alive-nobody-is**

**That said, I hope everyone read and enjoy! :)**

**The Awakened**

_An Amazing World of Gumball Story_

By NeoNimbus

Chapter 4-The Masks

For one whole week, Brian, along with his friends, went on with their normal routine, or at least they tried to. Ever since their discovery of their new powers, the seven had to learn from trial and error in order to avoid drawing suspicion from both their families and from everyone at school. Unfortunately, sometimes things go wrong, such as Gumball accidentally setting off the sprinklers (or frequently burning his clothes by accident) or Rhonda accidentally blinding a few of her fellow students. Mike would sometimes accidentally create little bumps in the field for the defenders to trip on at practice when he was almost sacked. Brian also sometimes accidentally releases a charge into others when they surprise him. Darwin found that out the hard way.

Needless to say, hiding and controlling their powers proved to be more difficult than they thought; they were just lucky their excuses were enough to keep everyone from becoming suspicious, even if it ended up creating one too many awkward moments.

Thankfully for the gang, the weekend was around the corner and now that their first week had passed, they decided to pay a visit to the Watterson residence, hoping that Anais had finished up whatever project she was working on. The group walked in to see Anais tapping her foot anxiously, as if she was waiting for hours.

"Finally!" she said with a groan. "Did you guys get lost on the way?!"

"Someone's having a long day," Mike commented aloud at Anais' rude behavior.

"Anais, do you know what it's like trying to hide our powers from everyone?" Brian started to explain. "One false move, and we all end up as government experiments."

"So excuse us if we have it tough, sis," Gumball added with a sarcastic tone.

"Now's not the time..." Anais began, dismissing their explanations. "Follow me!" Anais commanded, as she ran into the backyard. The others looked at each other before following, watching as Anais ran into the tool shed.

"What is she doing?" Carrie asked, perplexed.

"I don't know, Carrie," Rhonda replied. "But we should keep our guards up. Who knows what Anais will bring back from the tool shed."

"Good point, Rhonda," Penny agreed. "Let's all be ready." They all waited for a short while till Anais came back with her backpack. They all wondered what she had in there for them...and were a bit scared to find out. As Anais walked back into the kitchen, she signaled for them to follow her upstairs.

"Let's just get this over with," Darwin suggested, before he and his friends followed the child prodigy upstairs, eventually stopping right in front of the entrance of her bedroom, much to their confusion.

"Anais, there's seven high school juniors in this house; do we really all need to crowd into your room?" Mike asked as he looked at the small amount of space in the room thanks to Anais' collection of Daisy the donkey merchandise.

"There's an old saying, Mike: 'Don't judge a book by its cover," Anais simply replied, before she began to fiddle with a few pieces of merchandise. A few seconds later, a loud rumble suddenly appeared out of nowhere, alerting the seven, before the shelves gave way to an entrance none of them ever recalled seeing before. The entrance was a small elevator that was big enough to fit all of them but they were all too shocked that the elevator even existed to begin with.

"Anais..." a shocked Gumball muttered quietly.

"What?" Anais said in a very innocent tone, as if the elevator in the room was a normal thing.

"Where did you get the stuff to make this?" Gumball's eyes, along with everyone else's never left the elevator as they just stared on.

"I just happen to know a guy," Anais answered honestly. "But that's for another time. Right now, I need to show you guys what I have been working on."

"Y-Yeah, sure." Brian simply said, still in a state of shock like the rest of his friends. They all proceeded into the elevator, some more hesitant than others. Mike meanwhile was the most hesitant as he was still a little explosion shy after the toaster incident.

* * *

After what felt like forever, the elevator finally made its way to its destination, as the door opened up for the gang. But what they didn't expect was some sort of giant cavern underneath the Watterson residence; even more impressive, a laboratory of sorts was built within said cavern, with each device looking quite advanced. This was not something they would expect to see, or even believe that it would belong to someone like Anais. There was a large screen in the wall with three keyboards around a swivel chair with two mini monitors next to the keyboards. The room had a bunch of unfinished stuff as well that looked like nothing more than piles of parts. The walls were all made of solid rock and seemed to be extremely sturdy thanks to the thick support beam in the middle of the lab. The lab was very spacious as it was debatable if it was bigger than the lower part of the house.

"Anais, do Mrs. Mom and Mr. Dad know about this?" Darwin finally asked.

"Forget about that, Darwin! I just want to know how something like this went unnoticed over an entire week of work!" Rhonda exclaimed.

"Or how she did all this in a week," Brian commented.

"Considering a lot of things that's happened in the last few years, nothing is unbelievable at this point," Carrie said in a calmer voice, now with the shock of Anais' amazing feats over.

"If you guys are done gawking, I need everyone to pay attention," Anais informed her friends. "I'm sure most of you are wondering why I brought you down here."

"Well yeah, unless this is what you wanted to show us," Gumball remarked.

"Not even close," Anais said as she shook her head lightly. "I only brought you down here because I needed a secure place with enough room."

"So if it isn't the lab, then what is?" asked Penny. Anais reached into her backpack and pulled out eight full face masks that she set down on the table. Upon seeing the masks for themselves, the seven turned their gaze to the child prodigy, dumbfounded by what they were looking at. Eight masks; each of a different color: Red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, purple, and white.

"That's it? What you wanted to show us was a bunch of colorful masks?" asked Mike, as he arched an eyebrow.

"Why don't you try one on, Mike? I'd recommend the green one," Anais said in a very calm voice with a light smile that left Mike a bit uneasy. Mike walked over to the table and picked up the green mask that Anais had pointed to before putting it on. Suddenly in a flash of green light that blinded everyone in the room, Mike was completely enveloped in a green aura.

"Mike!" a shocked Carrie called out to her boyfriend. Carrie began to worry as she tried to look at where Mike was. As the light began to fade, Mike's form could be made out.

"Whoa!" Brian uttered breathlessly.

"You took the words out of my mouth..." Gumball said to his friend. As the light fully faded, Mike looked incredibly different. Instead of his usual attire, the maroon badger now wore a green hoodie with an armored chest that had a red 39 imprinted on the center of the chest area. Mike's pants were now deep brown with rock designs going up and down them and no longer had the extra pockets while his shoes were now a light green. But the most shocking thing to everyone was his fur; no longer was it the normal maroon they had become so accustomed to. It was now a deep green with his stripes now completely missing. Mike opened his eyes to reveal they were now an intense emerald that seemed to shine like they were gems.

"Wow, that felt weird..." Mike mumbled to himself, before he noticed his friends looking right at him. "What's wrong?"

"Mike, whatever you do, don't freak out," Brian cautioned his friend, before he pulled up the nearest mirror he can find. Upon showing his friend his new look, the now green badger was both shocked and horrified by his appearance.

"Aah! What the hell happened to me?!" Mike shouted as he stared at the badger in the mirror.

"We honestly don't know," Carrie admitted. "But I think it has something to do with the mask Anais handed to you seconds ago." They all looked to Anais who had a pleased smile on her face.

"Anais, mind explaining Mike's extreme makeover?" Rhonda demanded from the child prodigy.

"They say a mask can hide many things. Why not an entire outfit?" Anais said, trying to sound mystifying.

"How did you manage to pull off something like that?! Not even the military could afford those things!" Gumball shouted in a mix of both confusion and disbelief.

"The military doesn't have super enhanced IQ levels," Anais said with confidence. "Thanks to my new tattoo, I can feel myself getting smarter by the day!"

"Wait, you're saying that it gave you some sort of secondary power?" Brian asked, confused by what Anais just told them.

"Of course, Brian. How did you think I was able to build this lab?" Anais asked as she motioned for them to look around.

"That does explain everything then," Darwin commented.

"But there's something I don't get: why did the mask turn Mike's fur green?" Carrie asked the child prodigy.

"That's simple; so you guys would be able to stop those OverHundred guys without revealing yourselves. I give you: The perfect disguise!" Anais said with enthusiasm.

"Not to burst your bubble or anything, but please tell me this isn't permanent," said an irritated Mike.

"Don't worry, there's an off feature. All of the masks are assigned to recognize only the voice of who they're made for. Just say "mask off" and it will do the rest," Anais said matter-of-factly. Mike looked at her like she was joking before following her instructions.

"Mask off?" the badger was enveloped in another bright light before reverting back to how he was before. Only difference was the mask wasn't there anymore.

"Where did his mask go?" Darwin asked his sister.

"The mask is..." Anais stopped herself which started to scare Mike.

"Is...what?" Carrie asked.

"...Embedded under your skin?" Anais answered meekly before Mike suddenly started to panic.

"WHAT! IT'S WHERE?!" Mike shouted as he picked up Anais and began to shake her. "Why the hell did you do that?!" Anais rubbed her ears after Brian and Gumball managed to get their friend to calm down.

"Mike, calm down for a moment, I'm sure Anais has a good reason for what she did," Brian attempted to get the maroon badger calm as possible.

"Besides, my sis isn't the kind of person who would have cruel intentions," Gumball added.

"It's okay, Mike," Carrie said calmly as she floated over to him. "At least you're not going to die from it,"

"But that still doesn't explain why the mask Mike wore is now part of him," Penny reminded her friend, hoping Anais would offer some explanation about her actions.

"I was going to get to that!" Anais called from behind them. "Yes, the mask is a part of him but it's still removable but only by Mike himself. Just act like you were pulling it off normally," Anais instructed the pissed off badger. Mike grabbed the area around his face until he felt something like a mask over his face. Not wanting to just pull it off, he stopped right there and nodded.

"Okay so I can take it off whenever I please?" Mike asked, now fully calm. Anais nodded with a smile.

"Okay guys, I've made us all masks, each one the color of your tattoos," Anais informed as she pointed to the table.

Brian and his friends looked at each other, understandably nervous. After what felt like a long time, Carrie took a deep breath and floated her way towards the table, if only to break the awkward silence in the lab.

"Well, I guess I'll give it a shot," Carrie quietly said, before she put the dark blue mask on her face and soon, her body was enveloped in a dark blue light. A few seconds later, the dark blue light receded, revealing Carrie, or rather, an entirely different version. For some reason, she had legs where her ghost tail should be and replacing her casual attire was a dark blue wing suit (minus the wings) with wind designs on the suit, her white number 44 on her upper abdomen and three white stripes, one on each side and one on the front as well as a pair of armored boots. Her hair was no longer blocking half her face and became noticeably shorter. Her hairclip also disappeared and her skin was now turning dark blue. But the most interesting aspect of the costume (at least for Mike anyway) was that it hugged her body tightly, revealing her curvaceous figure. Needless to say, Carrie was aghast by this appearance.

"Anais, what were you thinking?!" she demanded, before she suddenly fell back into Mike's arms, not used to having legs of her own. "And why do I have legs all of a sudden?!"

"It would have been too inconspicuous for you to have your normal tail so I gave you legs to hide the real Carrie," Anais explained composedly.

"That doesn't explain why I have to wear this get-up! I feel naked wearing this outfit!" Carrie retorted, her face blushing immensely. Mike helped Carrie to her new feet while continuing to blush.

"Maybe we should help her get used to legs?" Mike asked his friends.

"Good idea, Mike," Brian agreed, before he and Gumball allowed Carrie to use them as balance so she could get used to her new form.

"I guess I'll try on my mask while they help Carrie," Darwin figured, before making his way to the table and putting on his blue mask. Soon, the two-legged fish was consumed by a blue light, before it too disappeared, revealing him to be wearing some sort blue thermal suit, covering his entire body except for his face and had a armored leg guard on his left leg. His number was printed onto his wrist area of the suit and was shining a dim orange.

"Neato! This has to be the coolest costume I've ever had!" Darwin happily exclaimed.

"At least someone likes it," Anais remarked.

"Well, here goes nothing," said Penny, approaching the table with uncertainty, before putting on her red mask and being consumed by its red light. When it eventually faded away, the deer now wore a red top that fitted onto her form, a short skirt and white sneakers with high red socks, along with an armored leg guard on her right leg. In addition, she also had what appeared to be a dark red cross on the center of her face and the wristbands and her antlers had vanished as well. Penny's number was printed above her shoes right on her left ankle and her fur was a very light red that was almost pinkish.

"Anais, what's with the new look? It feels weird not having my antlers," Penny asked in confusion as she looked in a mirror and rubbed her head where her antlers used to be.

"Just like Carrie needed legs for her costume and Darwin needed that mask, I figured a cross on your face and a lack of antlers would also make you less inconspicuous," Anais calmly explained.

"I guess that makes sense. It just feels weird looking like this."

"On the bright side, at least you're not dressed up like a nurse," Gumball jokingly commented.

"But you would like that, wouldn't you, Gumball?" Mike joked, irking the feline.

"Alright, my turn!" Gumball grabbed the mask angrily and threw it on before being enveloped in a fiery orange light. By the time the light disappeared, Gumball now wore a red baseball cap, as well as an orange shirt with his number imprinted on the left shoulder, a pair of gauntlets, a white vest with a fire symbol on it and dark red jeans. His whiskers were no longer on his face as they had disappeared and his fur turned a blazing orange.

"I was expecting something...flashier," Gumball spoke in disappointment, before his entire body was consumed in flames. "Aah! Not again!"

Soon he was running around in circles, panicking wildly, until he noticed that his clothes, for some reason, remained intact, despite being in flames.

"Nice, I finally have some clothes that don't burn!" Gumball exclaimed happily.

"At least we won't have to see what doesn't need to be seen again," Mike stated.

"Yeah, I really don't want to see that at all," Brian agreed, as he shivered in disgust. "Well I guess it's my turn?"

"Actually can I go next, Brian?" Rhonda asked in a sweet voice.

"...Alright Rhonda, you're up," Brian eventually replied to his girlfriend, unable to resist that sweet tone from her voice.

"Thank you," Rhonda then made her way to the table and put on her white mask. Within seconds, a bright white light consumed her body and a few seconds later, faded right away, revealing the mouse in her new attire. She was now wearing a white shirt with a hood that seemed to fit onto her form perfectly, with an arm guard on her left arm, a pair of form fitting purple pants and white sneakers, along with a visor that covered her eyes. Her fur has also changed as well, becoming white instead, though she still had her short, brown hair.

"Whoa! This costume feels a bit weird," Rhonda said as she looked in the mirror, mostly staring at the visor over her eyes.

"I-I really don't know what you're talking about," Brian nervously said, his eyes darting away from Rhonda's new attire.

"We know where you're looking," Mike whispered at Brian.

"Shut it," Brian whispered back, as he elbowed his friend in the stomach, causing him to chuckle.

"Brian, you're up," Anais informed the fox.

"Sure, I'm on it." Brian quickly said, wanting to avoid an awkward moment with his girlfriend, before he quickly made his way to the table and tried on his yellow mask. Just like his friends, he was consumed by a bright yellow light, before eventually fading away, revealing Brian's new form. His fur had now been turned yellow and all of his hair spiked up. In addition, he was wearing a white and yellow shirt with a thunder symbol, shock gloves, an arm guard on his right arm, a pair of sunglasses, black trousers and boots with rubber soles.

"Yikes, this is quite shocking," Brian gasped in surprise.

"Yeah nice pun there, Electric Man," Gumball said with a sigh.

"Electric Man? Lightning is more like it!" Brian countered the blue feline.

"Wait a minute... that's not a bad idea," Anais suddenly spoke. "We need to give ourselves code-names! It will help us keep our identities secret!"

"You're right, Anais. We should probably do just that," Mike agreed with the child prodigy. Mike then transformed into his costume. "I'll be Golem from now on."

"If Mike and Brian will get identities, then so will I..." Gumball began as he tried to think of a name. "You can call me-"

"Toaster!" said Mike, cutting Gumball off.

"That's the dumbest codename ever! Why do I have to be called Toaster?!" an irate Gumball asked Mike.

"Cause you always burn your toast. That's why," Darwin stated innocently. "Anyway, I think I'll stick with Scales. Makes it easier to remember."

"Makes sense to me. I'll be Photondra," Rhonda simply said with a smile, no doubt having paid attention in science class.

"I guess I'll stick with Phantasma," Carrie spoke without a care.

"Just call me Savior since I can heal any injuries," said Penny. "What about you, Anais?" They all look to see a flash of purple light which subsided after a few seconds to reveal the new Anais. Standing in front of the seven was the child prodigy herself, her face covered by an armored helmet, wearing a purple body suit with a brain symbol and lightnings coming from it.

"Just call me I.Q.," Anais said with a smirk.

"Sounds like a fitting codename for you," said Mike. "Though why the helmet?"

"Just something I'm planning in the future," Anais said.

"Looks like we got our codenames down..." Darwin began. "Now all we need is some villains in Elmore and we're all set!"

"No, no we don't," Brian stated with an annoyed look on his face. "We're not crime-fighters, Darwin; we're high school students. The last thing I want is some gung-ho thug making his way into town for no reason and just deciding to wreck the place! We have enough of that as it is!"

"Besides, it's not like a crime is about to show up any given moment now," Gumball insisted. Suddenly an alarm went off inside the lab.

"How much free time do you have?!" Mike shouted.

"Something I installed in case something bad is going on around town," Anais calmly replied, before she and her friends made their way to a monitor, where a special news bulletin was being broadcasted, as a purple cell phone dressed in a brown business suit began to speak.

"This is Mark Call reporting live outside the Elmore National Bank! Just minutes ago, someone had attacked the area with explosives. Currently, the police are standing by until further notice and the robber has yet to make any demands at the moment."

"Bank robbers? Did Sal get out of prison again?" Brian asked.

As if to answer his question, an explosion unexpectedly occurred, causing the police and Mark to scramble for safety. When the dust settled down, standing right in front of them wasn't the fingerprinted robber himself, but rather, a well-built rhino, wearing a red shirt and brown pants. But what really caught the gang's interest was a number on his face, which turned out to be 152, colored in silver.

"Oh great, another one?!" Gumball complained in annoyance.

"No time for complaining, Gumball! We've got to go out and help the police!" Darwin suggested.

"As much as it pains me to say this, Darwin's right. We need to go out and help them right away," Brian reluctantly agreed.

"Surely you have a secret exit in cases like this, right Anais?" asked Carrie, as she finally got used to walking on her own legs.

"Actually, I didn't finish making that yet," Anais sheepishly admitted, causing the seven to groan in annoyance.

"Back in the elevator!" Mike ordered, as they all got into the elevator again.

'_Note to self: get that secret exit done,'_ Anais thought, before the elevator closed and began to rise up.

* * *

The Doughnut Police Officer, along with several of his fellow officers, were shooting at the rhino after said rhino threw a large piece of concrete at them almost like it was nothing. Aside from his super strength, what really amazed them is how the bullets weren't penetrating him in the slightest; no matter how much they fired, the bullets ricocheted all over the place and a few even bounced back towards the officers. It was a miracle that no officers were killed, though a few were injured in the confusion.

'_What in the sam hill is going on around here?! He should have been dead by now!'_ the Doughnut Police Officer thought, as he and his officers continued to shoot at the robber in vain.

"Sir, what are your orders?!" one officer frantically asked him. The Doughnut Police Officer had no idea what to do as the rhino continued to try and make his escape.

But before he could answer his fellow officer's question, out of nowhere, a fireball was randomly thrown in the rhino's direction, causing the would-be robber to fall down to his knees, along with his loot. Before the robber could look towards where the fireball came from, he was hit with a large rock to the face, staggering him.

"What the hell was that?!" another officer shouted in disbelief.

"Don't worry officer, we're here to help," a voice called out, prompting the Doughnut Police Officer and his men to turn around and see eight individuals from a distance, each wearing costumes of different shapes, sizes and colors.

"Are these kids going out to one of their comic book conventions?" asked a random officer.

"Well that's no respect for us," said Toaster, as he sighed with disappointment.

"Well these aren't exactly the most respectable clothes," Phantasma stated.

"Plus, we're new to this hero thing, so of course they're going to react like that," Lightning informed the blue feline.

"Look, let's not argue right now. We need to stop that guy before he gets away," Photondra reminded her friends.

"Rhonda's right, we need to kick his ass before things can get any worse," Golem agreed.

"Guys, he's getting up," Scales stated as he pointed towards the robber.

"Well, what do we have here? Some fresh meat." the rhino spoke with a deep voice.

"So who gets dibs on this fellow?" Toaster asked out loud.

"Gum...Toaster! Now's not the time!" Savior scolded her boyfriend, almost blowing their cover.

'_I really wish Mike didn't come up with that codename!'_ Toaster thought, before shaking his head and focusing his attention at the rhino. "Alright creep, you asked for it!"

With that, Toaster charged right towards his foe, unleashing a wave of fireballs at him, though a few bounced back and ended up hitting random objects along the way.

"Is that the best you got?" the rhino mockingly asked, before he grabbed a lamppost and threw it right at the costumed feline. Suddenly, a large chunk of the street jumped up, blocking the lamppost.

"You're welcome," Golem shouted, annoyed with Toaster's attack strategy. _'No idea how I did that.'_

"Yeah, sure," said Toaster, before he turned around and saw the rhino heading right at him with inhuman speed, before he swung his right arm, sending Toaster flying to a random building.

"Toaster!" Savior shouted as she ran to him. The rhino tried to stop her before Phontondra blinded him (and anyone unprepared for it) with a flash of light which Scales followed up by splashing him with high pressure water coming out of a fire hydrant that Golem helped break.

"I can't see a damn thing!" the rhino shouted, before Golem ran up and delivered a swift kick to the rhino's sternum and Phantasma sent a large amount of wind to stagger the rhino. Â Lightning delivered a chop block to the back of the rhino's leg, which finally got the big man on his back.

While everyone else continued on with the assault, Savior, meanwhile, began to use her healing powers towards her injured boyfriend; all the while hoping that there wasn't anything too serious.

"Toaster, are you alright?!" Savior pleaded with her boyfriend.

"I'm fine, though my ego took a beating," Toaster joked.

"Don't say that! You could have died back there!"

"Maybe, but as long as you're here, I'd go through a hundred buildings," Toaster said with a smile as he sat up.

"Just promise me that you won't do something that reckless from now on," Savior pleaded, though feeling better to see her boyfriend fine.

"I don't know if I can keep such a promise, but I'll try." Toaster assured his girlfriend. "Right now, we need to help our friends and whoop that guy's ass!"

Nodding her head in agreement, the two headed out to the street to rejoin their friends and save the day.

* * *

The fight with the rhino robber proved to be far more difficult than they thought; despite injuring him, he remained in fighting condition, even though they were hitting him hard, from Lightning shooting electricity to Phantasma throwing a few gusts of wind in his direction. No matter what they threw at him, he remained impervious to their attacks, shrugging them off like they were nothing.

'_How do we take him down?! At this rate, he might put the whole town in danger!'_ I.Q. worriedly thought, before she noticed a small metal pole sticking out from the ground, which soon gave her an idea.

'_I wonder...'_ she pondered, before she turned to Golem, who was still fending off the rhino robber. "Golem, I need your assistance over here! I think I know how to take him down!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Golem dashed his way to the child prodigy, as she explained to him her plan. As soon as she was done instructing him, Golem simply nodded his head and made his way towards the pole.

"This better work," Golem pulled the pole out of the ground with relative ease and saw that one end was pointed like a spear. "Phantasma, this may sound crazy, but I need your help with this one. I'm going to use that pole as a weapon and I want you to launch me at that thug!"

"Golem, that's too risky! What if it doesn't work?"

"What choice do we have?! It's either that or that robber is going to get away and who knows what he'll do next! Now just give me a boost!" Golem jumped onto the police car roof before jumping into the air and getting a wind-powered boost from Phantasma.

'_I hope I.Q. is right about this,'_ Golem thought, before he grabbed the pole with both hands and stabbed the rhino in the back, though it only went in far enough to stay in, as the rhino screamed in pain before smacking Golem away.

"Lightning! Now!" Golem shouted to his confused friend who suddenly understood. Lightning built up a charge before shooting the metal pole, sending a huge amount of voltage through the rhino's body, sending him crashing to the ground, defeated at last.

"About time we defeated that jerkass!" Phantasma remarked.

"I know what you mean. The odds of something like that happening were very slim." I.Q. stated.

"Let's just be glad that it didn't turn out like that." said Lightning, before he spotted Toaster and Savior heading their way.

"Aw man, you guys defeated him before I had a chance!" Toaster complained.

"If I recall, your strategy was consisting of charging at him like a maniac." Golem reminded his friend.

"Golem's right. You need to be more careful next time." Scales scolded his brother.

"Freeze!" the Doughnut Police officer shouted, as he and his men swarmed the eight, all fully armed and raising their guns at the stunned group.

"We should go now," Savior said quietly before Phantasma teleported them all out of harm's way.

* * *

That night, after everyone switched back to their casual attire, the gang secretly made their way downstairs, not wanting to draw any suspicion from both Richard and Nicole from their presence. Thankfully for them, Nicole was still at work while Richard was on the couch, sleeping as always.

"That was a close one," Brian remarked.

"No kidding, we were almost arrested," Darwin stated.

"That was uncalled for! We stop the bad guy and all of a sudden we're treated like garbage!" Gumball whined.

"Considering their fearful expressions, I don't blame them," Rhonda commented.

"I think we should be more careful with our powers." Anais began. "Did you see the destruction we caused today? We have to make sure they don't get out of control."

"Are you sure you're not exaggerating that, sis?" asked Gumball.

In response, Darwin picked up the remote from the coffee table and turned the TV on to see the news reporting their recent escapade.

"This is Mark Call reporting live and today has been called by many to be bizarre and strange. Just a few minutes ago, eight mysterious strangers appeared out of nowhere to stop a robber who was almost invincible. Although his rampage came to an abrupt end, the chaos the costumed vigilantes created didn't go unnoticed. Many had complained of power outages and lack of water, while thousands of dollars in damage was caused during this event. Here is what the lead officer had to say."

"I don't know who these people are, but I can say this: these vigilantes pose a threat to this fine town," the Doughnut Police Officer informed the press. "Should anyone see any suspicious activities, report to the police right away. They should be considered armed and dangerous. That is all." With that, the police officer walked off, followed by many reporters and journalists continuing to ask him for more details, before Darwin turned off the TV.

"Well...Uh..." Brian stuttered. "Oops."

"What the WHAT?!" Gumball shouted, annoyed to hear this.

"I know, Gumball! They should be grateful for our help!" Darwin complained.

"Tell that to the lives we've altered with our meddling," Mike spoke calmly. Everyone in the room looked at him as he stared at the screen. "Sure we stopped one super robber with a number but we still did more harm than good...at least in this case," everyone in the room was perplexed.

"What do you mean, Mike?" Carrie asked.

"Right now, we're all walking super hazards with uncontrolled abilities," Mike explained. "I believe it's for the best that we drop off the grid for a few days and instead of trying to stop any crimes, we should instead focus on controlling our powers," Mike concluded.

"Are you serious, Mike?" Gumball and Darwin asked simultaneously.

"Yes, I'm serious," Mike sternly replied. "Until we learn how to use them correctly, we're going to take a hiatus on crime fighting starting now."

"I agree with Mike," Brian spoke up. "If we're going to do this, we can't afford to do it the wrong way and end up hurting innocent people."

"So when's a good time to train our powers?" asked Rhonda.

"The weekend is a good time to do some training and if possible, we can take a chance on the week as long as everyone isn't too busy with school." Anais suggested.

"So we'll need to work extra hard to make sure we have as much time as possible?" Penny asked.

"Right," Brian answered. "Until then we'll just go back to our normal lives till we feel we have total control over what we're doing,"

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement. For now on, they'll secretly train and try to maintain a normal life as best as they could.

_Next time on The Awaken_

_Chapter 5-The Lightning_

_Brian decided to learn how to control his electric ability, but finds that to be easier said than done. Rhonda and Gumball decide to help him out._

**Tidbits**

**-Early on, Sal and I decided that Brian and the gang won't be immediately accepted as heroes right on the spot and as such, we decided instead to focus on them trying to earn the town's trust. Also, whenever they go out in their superhero personas, they'll be using their codenames to distinguish from their civilian identities.**

**-I wanted to thank Sal for suggesting the kinds of costumes the gang will be wearing for the rest of the story.**

**I hope everyone's enjoying this story so far and I'll be seeing ya next chapter!**


	5. The Lightning

**The** **Awakened**

_An Amazing World of Gumball Story_

By NeoNimbus

Chapter 5-The Lightning

It was just another typical morning at the O'Quinn residence, but ever since Brian gained the ability to conduct electricity, he had to make a few adjustments to his daily routine, including having to buy a shock-proof clock and putting away most of his clothes. Even so, it did little to help the fox out and he just wanted to do something with his strange ability. He was just glad that it was the weekend and he can do something about it.

"Another day, another chapter in my life," Brian muttered under his breath, as he slammed the clock to shut it off. "Alright then, it's time to do some training."

As soon as Brian said those words, he noticed that he was still in his night attire, much to his embarrassment.

"But first, I need to clean myself up," the purple fox commented, before he went to the bathroom to start off the morning.

After giving himself a nice shower and changing into his usual attire, Brian, after setting up the backyard with a few things he could use to train, decided to do some stretches to warm up before going through with his plans. With his parents out and about, he was free to do as he pleased, as long as he made sure he wasn't watched.

'_Alright Brian, you can do this. Just shoot the can off from the fence. After all, how hard can it be?'_

His mind made up, Brian pointed his paw towards the can and after a moment of concentration, the fox shot out a jolt of electricity from his finger. Unfortunately, his first attempt ended rather badly, as he overshot the can, the bolt flying into the neighbor's yard.

"OW! Why did I just get shocked?!" the neighbor shouted in pain. But before he could figure out what happened, Brian was already hidden. The neighbor decided to go inside to avoid more lightning strikes.

"Oops," Brian mumbled under his breath, as he came out from the bushes. "Let's try that again,"

Using the same move from before, Brian aimed at the can and once again shot another jolt of electricity. Once again, however, the jolt missed its mark and went quite a distance away; for a moment, he swore he could have heard Richard yelping in pain.

"OW! This is the worst pain I ever felt since I fell from the roof!"

"This isn't going to be good," Brian quietly said, disappointed by how this was turning out. "Oh well, third's time a charm."

With that, Brian used the same move once more, ready to hit the tin can.

* * *

**Five minutes later...**

Brian was starting to become rather agitated about how his training was going; no matter what he did, the jolt of electricity always missed its mark, hitting someone in its place instead. The purple fox was just thankful that no one else was around to see what he was doing.

'_This is ridiculous! How the hell am I supposed to help my friends out if I can't even shoot one can down?!'_ Brian thought in frustration, before taking a deep breath to calm his down. "So this isn't turning out the way I wanted. It looks like I'm going to need some help,"

Brian then picked up his cell phone from his pocket and dialed the only number that he could think of.

"Rhonda, sorry to bother you, but I could use some assistance. If you can bring one of the others along as well, that would be great too."

Brian sat down on the front porch, waiting for a few minutes for his girlfriend (and anyone she can find) to show up. As he waited patiently for them to show up, all he could think about was the mess he made during the morning.

'_What am I doing wrong? There has to be an explanation.'_

"Sorry we're late Brian!" a certain mouse called out, snapping Brian back to reality, as he saw Rhonda and Gumball making their way towards him.

"Thanks for showing up, you guys."

"Don't mention it, Brian," the blue feline assured his friend. "We would have made it here sooner if I didn't have to take dad to the emergency room today."

"Oh, about that..." was all Brian could say, before he noticed both Rhonda and Gumball looking at him with a surprised expression.

"That was you?" asked the blue feline, causing Brian to rub his head sheepishly.

"It wasn't my intention. I was trying to hit a tin can but I kept missing each time."

"Why were you trying to hit a tin can?" Gumball was now confused by that last statement.

"If I recall, Mike suggested that we need to train ourselves, so I'm doing just that," Brian explained. "However, it went pretty badly. I hit other people more than I hit the can." Gumball and Rhonda listened intently to Brian's problem while thinking of a way to help him.

"Any suggestions?" the blue feline whispered to the mouse.

"None so far," Rhonda replied. "Let's just hear him out first before we come up with something."

"Wait, there's more?" Gumball asked, thinking they already had the full story.

"He just started a minute ago. How could you not been paying attention?" the mouse asked the blue feline, before shaking her head. "Just listen for now."

Gumball nodded his head in agreement, not wanting to upset the mouse and continued to listen on for several minutes, before Brian was finally done with his story.

"...And that's how it happened."

"Sorry to hear about that," Rhonda sympathized with her boyfriend.

"But maybe there's a way to help you out," Gumball added, surprising both Rhonda and Brian in the process.

"Seriously?" asked a stunned Brian.

* * *

"Gumball, I don't think this is going to work," Brian pointed out.

"You worry too much, Brian..." Gumball began, wearing some metal as armor. "All you have to do is just hit me. As long as I have this, I'll be fine."

"Or you'll end up fried," Rhonda commented, disapproving of her friend's action. "Metal doesn't prevent you from being hurt from electricity; it strengthens it!"

"Please, I think you're exaggerating it. Look, there's a storm coming right now. I'll prove this will work!" the blue feline stubbornly insisted. But the moment the storm showed up in their presence, lightning struck the unfortunate feline.

"Alright! I'll admit that wasn't a good idea!" he confessed his failures to his friends. "At least lightning doesn't strike twice."

Unexpectedly, another bolt struck Gumball, before the storm finally disappeared, leaving a blackened Gumball twitching on the ground.

"...Ow," was all the blue feline could mutter, as he was still in pain from the shock.

"So much for that plan," said Brian, as he and Rhonda came to Gumball and picked their friend up, pulling the armor off of him before setting him down as softly as they could.

"Maybe I have something better and safer for you to try out," Rhonda suggested.

"As long as Gumball doesn't come up with another crazy idea, then I'm fine with that." Brian agreed with his girlfriend.

"It's not much, but..."

* * *

It took a long while, but with some assistance from Gumball, Rhonda was able to construct a dummy of sorts, albeit one made out of plastic bottles, before setting it up far away from hitting anyone or anything, leaving it as the only target for Brian to strike.

"Alright Brian, here's how it works..." Rhonda began with her instruction. "All you have to do just aim and concentrate on this dummy. Don't worry, there's no way it'll conduct electricity when it gets hit."

"That sounds simple enough," Brian stated, as he took a deep breath and stuck his paw out like a gun. "Alright then, let's do this."

"Dude, you're going to aim at someone with that pose?" Gumball asked nonchalantly, prompting Rhonda to elbow him in the stomach.

Ignoring his friend's comment, Brian concentrated on the dummy as hard as he could, before he shot a jolt of electricity at the plastic dummy. However, his aim was far off, as the jolt missed its mark and ended up hitting one of the fence posts, bouncing back and shocking the blue feline instead.

"OW!" Gumball yelped in pain, as he leapt off of the ground. "Watch where you shooting next time!"

"Gumball, it was an accident. I'm sure he never meant to do that," Rhonda scolded her friend, before turning her attention to her boyfriend. "Alright Brian, let's see what you can do!"

"Okay let's try that again. This time hit the dummy," Brian quietly said to himself, before he used the same move and aimed at the dummy, before shooting the jolt of electricity at it. Once again, the jolt missed and hit another fence post, bouncing it back to the blue feline.

"What's wrong with you?!" Gumball berated the fox. "Why am I getting hit?!"

"Sorry Gumball, I didn't mean to," Brian apologized to his friend, before looking down on the ground with disappointment. "It's just that no matter how much I concentrate, I still end up making a mess. I don't know why it's like that. It just happens," Rhonda walked over and put her hand on Brian's shoulders.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You just have to keep trying," Rhonda said to her boyfriend, before a thought occurred to her. "Is there anything psychological that's preventing you from accomplishing your task?"

"What do you mean?" a confused Brian asked.

"I mean are you afraid of hurting someone in your vicinity? If that's the case, then perhaps that's why you couldn't hit the tin can or the dummy," Rhonda theorized.

"Are you sure about that, Rhonda? Brian did well when he used his power on that rhino dude yesterday," Gumball noted.

"That's because there was no one around him other than us," Rhonda countered the feline's claim. "Maybe it has to do with anyone who can't fight back."

"...Well, I do admit that I was taken aback by the reactions from yesterday's news report," Brian admitted. "After seeing the backlash we received, I wasn't so sure how to handle a similar situation should we encounter one at some point."

"I know, right?!" the blue feline agreed. "Those cops back there should be thanking us and giving us medals, not behave like a bunch of cocky, ungrateful-" Before he can go further, Rhonda cut him off, as she punched him on the shoulder.

"That's enough. I understand how you feel, but it's not going to happen just like that. It takes time," Rhonda then turned and faced her boyfriend. "Brian, it's alright if you're worried of accidentally putting someone in the crossfire, but don't let your fear hold you back. That's why you need the training, so you can make sure nothing tragic can happen."

"You sure that would help improve my training?" Brian asked with uncertainty.

"Just trust her on this one," Gumball answered in place of Rhonda. "Everyone has a reason to be afraid, but don't let it control your actions. Just take a chance and go for it. That and make sure I'm not the one getting hit."

Brian looked at both Rhonda and Gumball, having listened to them for at least several minutes, as far as he was concerned about time. Although he still has reservations regarding how he was unable to use his powers correctly, they did have a point: letting fear control his every single action was something he didn't want to deal with and it's better to take a chance and risk it.

With this in mind, Brian sighed before facing the two to let them know how he felt.

"You're right, guys. It's time I put my own fear aside and take a chance."

"Now that's more like it," said Rhonda, as she and Gumball both smiled at the fox.

Now feeling encouraged, a confident smile formed on Brian's face and turned to face the plastic dummy, using the same move from this morning and setting his eyes on his target with full concentration, he shot a jolt of electricity at it; this time, it managed to hit its mark, as the electricity was now coursing all over the plastic dummy, much to everyone's relief.

'_Thank goodness I'm the one not getting hit this time,'_ the blue feline happily thought, as Brian made his way to him and Rhonda.

"Guys, I did it! I managed to do it without harming anyone by accident!"

"See, what did I tell you? I knew you would pull it off," Rhonda said with a smile. "That said, maybe that move you made might be handy in the future."

"Now that you mention it, I think it does." Brian agreed. "In fact, I think I'll use it as my signature move from now on and call it...THE GUNSLINGER!"

"The Gunslinger? That's so cliché," an unimpressed Gumball responded, before Rhonda punched him in the shoulder. "OW! Why do you keep doing that?"

"Gumball, don't ruined his moment. Let's just make him feel that he accomplished something for today." Rhonda explained, prompting the blue feline to reluctantly nod his head, as the two watched Brian using his Gunslinger move at the plastic dummy, shooting each jolt of electricity at it with ease.

* * *

For the next several hours, Brian continued on with his training with some assistance from Gumball and Rhonda. After he finally used his powers successfully, the purple fox tried out a few new moves, including shooting a stream of electricity from the tip of his paw, generating an electric field around him and even a bit of magnokinesis. As far as he was concerned, he was having the time of his life.

'_This is the best thing to ever happen to me!'_ Brian thought, before he noticed the sun was starting to set. "Damn, time flies really fast."

"No kidding..." Gumball began. "I didn't even know that it was going to get dark this soon."

"We should head back home then," Rhonda suggested. "The last thing we want is our parents worried about us."

"Agreed. Anyway, I need to head back home now before mom goes ballistic," said Gumball, before he waved his goodbyes to his friends and ran back home, leaving just Brian and Rhonda in the backyard.

"Rhonda, thanks for the help. If it wasn't for you and Gumball, I wouldn't be able to learn how to correctly use my powers."

"Don't mention it, Brian," Rhonda insisted, as she smiled and rubbed her head sheepishly. "It was nice hanging out with you just like the old days."

"Yeah, it really felt like that," Brian agreed, before him and his girlfriend locked eyes with each other, gazing rather lovingly. Slowly but surely, the distance between the two began to close, but just as they were about to make contact…

"AHEM!" a voice called out of nowhere, as Brian and Rhonda quickly turned around and saw Annie and Gordon just a few inches away from them, both looking at the two with a look of amusement.

"H-How long have you been standing there?" Brian timidly asked.

"Long enough to know that you were about to make out with your girlfriend," Gordon replied.

"Why do you guys have to ruin everything?" Brian asked, annoyed.

"Sorry, honey. It's our duty as your parents to make your life difficult," Annie explained with a smile.

"Oh, look at the time. I need to get going before dad gets home," Rhonda quickly spoke, her face flustered, before she waved her goodbyes to the O'Quinns and dashed off.

'_Aw man!'_ Brian thought with disappointment, before his father spoke, snapping him back to reality.

"Before we go in for the night, I just have one question: why does the backyard look like a fire went through it?"

Brian didn't respond right away, as he silently panicked. He couldn't believe that he forgot to clean up the mess he made and now, his parents were looking at him expectantly.

'_...THINK OF SOMETHING, YOU MORON!' _Brian shouted in his head. Suddenly, a huge explosion could be heard a little down the street. Brian and his family looked in the direction of the explosion to see a smoke plume rising into the sky.

"What was that?!" asked a frantic Annie, as she clung onto her husband's arm.

"I don't know, hon! I'm just as shocked as you are!" Gordon replied, as he also clung onto his wife's arm.

"C'mon, we need to get inside right now!" Brian suggested, as he opened the backyard door and allowed his parents inside, before quickly closing it. Fortunately for the fox, his parents were too frightened to catch what their son just did.

"_Sorry, mom and dad. I got something that needs to be done. Mike's probably going to yell at me for this though," _Brian thought to himself with a sigh. "Mask on!"

With those words spoken, Brian was engulfed by a bright yellow light, before it faded out, revealing his costumed persona, as he rushed towards the smoke plume to check out the situation at hand.

* * *

It happened without warning; one moment, everyone was minding their own business like they always had in the shopping district. The next thing they knew, someone, or something, caused an explosion just inches away, forcing everyone to flee for their own lives.

"I just love the sweet smell of sulfur!" a voice spoke out loud. It revealed itself from the smoke to be an ostrich with wisteria feathers, grey shirt and white pants. His beak shined with his magenta number 159. "Now, where are those numbers?"

"If you're looking for one, then look no further!" Brian, or rather, Lightning called out from behind, prompting the OverHundred to turn around and see the yellow fox in person.

"Hey look, it's that yellow fox who can shoot electricity from yesterday!" one citizen called out.

"Yeah, where are the rest of his friends?" another asked out of curiosity.

"Quick! Everyone run before he wipes out all our houses!" a third citizen shouted in fear, no doubt still aware of the day before.

'_Seriously?! You guys are more concerned about the destruction of buildings over your own lives?!'_ Lightning thought in annoyance.

"Hey fur ball, why don't you pay attention?!" the ostrich shouted, as he rushed towards him and performed an uppercut, before grabbing Lightning's tail and hurling him towards the nearest wall.

"Ow, that's going to be hurting tomorrow morning!" Lightning moaned in pain, before he got up and pointed his paw out at the OverHundred, much to his amusement.

"Ooh! The scary fox is going to shoot me! I'm so scared!" the ostrich sarcastically commented, before giving himself a big laugh.

"You might as well be," Lightning retorted, before he quickly shot a jolt of electricity at the ostrich, shocking him, much to his surprise.

"Ah, you little-" the ostrich shouted in pain. Before he could react, Lightning got closer and fired another bolt, shocking the bird again.

"Better watch your language," Lightning jokingly informed, before he resumed shooting one jolt of electricity after another.

Undaunted by this, the ostrich pulled a lamppost out of its foundation and began charging towards his enemy, swatting the jolts away, before he finally approached his opponent. Lightning attempted to dodge his next move, only to be hit very hard in the stomach, as he found himself launched towards the nearest building.

'_Ow! That's going to leave a big mark!'_ he thought to himself, as he slowly got up and attempted to regain his composure.

"I don't think so, fox boy!" the ostrich suddenly spoke, having approached the injured yellow fox, as he swung the lamppost at him once more, hitting him on the chest, before he picked him up by the tail and swung him down to the ground on his back.

'_Jeez, this guy must work out!'_ Lightning thought, as he struggled to get back up. But as he barely brought his head up, the ostrich grabbed him by the throat and picked him up, their eyes locked.

"I'm going to enjoy seeing you struggle for air," the ostrich gloated, as his grip on Lightning's neck tightened and he soon began to gasp for air.

But while the ostrich was chuckling at the sight of his foe's feeble attempt to breathe, Lightning, still struggling for air, noticed that his opponent wasn't paying attention to what he was doing and since his arms were free, this was an opportunity to strike back.

'_It's now...or never!'_ he barely could form a complete sentence in his mind, as Lightning managed to raise both of his paws and put them on the ostrich's side and quickly shocked him as hard as he could, as the ostrich began to shout in pain and released his foe, as electricity coursed throughout his body, before finally falling down to the ground, completely unconscious.

"I heard...electrotherapy is...the alternative for...medical needs. I guess...that's true...in your case," Lightning joked, despite still trying to catch his breath, his throat burning. Suddenly, Lightning heard police sirens coming his way.

_Time to go!'_ Lightning thought as he ran down the street, trying to avoid the police.

* * *

After making his way home (and deactivating the mask), Brian looked up at the sky to realize that it's now night and for the fox, it won't be long before his parents were going to ask him so many questions. After all, what parent wouldn't worry about their child who disappeared in the middle of a sudden scare like that. A police car rolled by as Brian thought about his immediate future, completely unaware that the person they were looking for was so close by.

'_Thank goodness the police aren't that bright,'_ Brian thought, before he approached the front door and quietly opened it, only to find the entire house to be eerily silent, much to his relief. But as soon as he closed the door behind, the light turned on and saw his parents looking at him with a stern look.

"Honey, mind giving me an explanation of where you were?" Annie asked.

"And it better be a good one..." Gordon began. "Do you know how worried we are?!" Brian thought he was caught. He still couldn't make it that easy.

"Uh, I was outside hiding…" the purple fox lied meekly. "Sorry I didn't tell you where I was."

"...I guess that explains why we didn't see you in the house," Annie accepted her son's excuse. Brian sighed with relief: his parents were completely clueless.

"But don't make us worry like that! If something happened to you, we wouldn't ever forgive ourselves!" Gordon shouted worriedly.

"I'm sorry, really, I am," Brian insisted. "I'll be careful next time."

"Okay, honey," Annie spoke in a kinder voice. "Now that all the craziness is over, we can just move on for now, 'kay?"

"Your mom's right. We need to get ready for tomorrow and who knows, it might turn out to be better," Gordon suggested.

'_Somehow, that might not be the case from now on,'_ Brian thought, before turning to his parents. "You're right dad; let's call it a night."

With that, the O'Quinns headed upstairs to get a good rest until tomorrow.

* * *

"Another OverHundred sent, another dramatic failure," a Russian voice said in his cave as he talked to seven other hooded figures. "I hope the next one of you doesn't screw up on recon this time. You're supposed to find the Numbers, not make a scene!"

The seven hooded figures nodded their heads to show their obedience, before they departed from the cave to hunt down their targets.

"I hope these idiots don't end up making things even harder on us. We're already in bad shape if we're sending new recruits to do the big stuff," the cloaked Russian sighed as he sat down.

"You worry too much, Victor," another voice called out from the darkness. Victor looked to see another cloaked figure.

"Lucas?!" Victor called to the figure in surprise. "What are you doing here?!"

"I was sent to make sure you didn't screw anything else up," Lucas explained. "We don't exactly have a lot of time here," Victor scoffed before beginning to cook some unidentifiable meat on a stick.

"Do whatever you want! You do anyway," Victor said in defeat as he submitted to Lucas' command.

"Now then, on to business…"

_Next time on The Awakened_

_Chapter 6-The Photondra_

_Rhonda's training gets complicated when she has to find a gift for her father's birthday, prompting the mouse to seek help from Penny and Carrie._

**Tidbits**

**-Starting with The Lightning, this marks the beginning of The Training arc and as such, each chapter will focus on one member of the gang, as each discover a new ability and they also try to gain the town's trust at the same time.**

**-I wanted to thank Sal for coming up with this suggestion as well.**

**That said, I hope this was worth the wait and I'll be seeing ya next chapter!**


	6. The Photondra

**The Awakened**

_An Amazing World of Gumball Story_

By NeoNimbus

Chapter 6-The Photondra

It was a quiet but peaceful day at the Paxton residence, specifically in Rhonda's bedroom, as the mouse was concentrating very hard on a dim light that is slowly becoming bigger and brighter. It wasn't much, but at the least, she wanted to make sure that she didn't end up accidentally blinding everyone around her, including her friends.

A few days had passed since Rhonda took Mike's advice; if there's anything that she wanted to avoid, it was causing problems. They wanted to earn the town's trust, not blow it to pieces. She also wanted to keep her identity a secret from her father; in fact, she could hear him knocking on her bedroom door right now.

"Rhonda, are you there?" Max asked out of curiosity, prompting the mouse to put the light out, before she got up and made her way to the door and opened it up to face him.

"I'm fine, dad. I'm just...doing some yoga, that's all," Rhonda didn't like to lie, but she didn't want her father to get suspicious at the same time.

"That would explain things," Max concluded. "Anyway, I was wondering if you know what's going on tomorrow."

"Well, I haven't thought much about it, but why do you ask?" Rhonda asked the older mouse, confused by his last statement.

"Don't tell me you haven't realized what tomorrow is," said Max, as his daughter shook her head in response, much to his dismay. "Tomorrow is my birthday, dear. Surely, you haven't forgotten about that."

The moment Max said those words, Rhonda didn't respond right away, as she froze with shock and horror. How can she have forgotten about her father's birthday?

"Rhonda, are you alright?" asked Max, snapping his daughter back to reality.

"Yeah, sure, I'm good, dad," Rhonda lied, as she feigned a smile to hide the fact that she almost forgot his birthday.

"Alright then, that's good," Max was a bit suspicious of his daughter's sudden hesitation, but decided to dismiss it for the moment. "Anyway, I need to head to the sports shop right now, so take care of yourself while I'm gone."

"Sure dad, I will," said Rhonda, as Max smiled back in response, before he gently closed the door and headed downstairs to head for work. When Rhonda saw him drive away, she immediately started to panic. "How could I forget my dad's birthday?! I've got less than 24 hours to find him a present! What am I going to do?"

After pacing back and forth in her bedroom for about a few minutes, trying to figure out what to do, Rhonda eventually calmed down long enough to keep her composure, though not enough to put the situation at bay for the moment.

'_Looks like I'm going to need some help,'_ Rhonda thought, before she picked up her cell phone and dialed up the best people that came to her mind. "Penny, are you available? I could use some help with something very important. Also, call Carrie as well when you have the chance."

* * *

After waiting for a few more minutes in the living room, Rhonda heard someone knocking at the door, much to her relief, as she opened it to see both Penny and Carrie in front of her, no doubt having received her call.

"Thanks for stopping by, you guys. I really appreciate it."

"Don't mention it, Rhonda. We're here to help a friend out," Penny assured the mouse.

"Speaking of which, what do you need help on?" asked Carrie.

"I'll keep the explanation as short as possible..." Rhonda began, before she took a deep breath and started to explain. "Tomorrow is my dad's birthday and I completely forgot about it with the whole superpower thing happening and now I need to find him a gift and fast! If I don't, he's going to be so disappointed!"

Once she was done with her explanation, both Penny and Carrie were taken aback by their friend's reaction, including the worrisome look on her face. They had not once seen Rhonda with a look of panic on her face, as far as they could recall, but it wasn't something that either of them were used to.

"Calm down Rhonda! It's not like he's going to die from you not getting him a present," Penny tried to calm her friend down.

"He might be on the inside!" Rhonda retorted, prompting Carrie to slap her on the face. "Thanks, I needed that."

"Don't mention it, but Penny's right, you need to calm down. I'm sure you'll find something to get your dad on time."

"Speaking of which, what kind of gift does your dad like? Do you even know what he wants?" Penny pointed out.

"I...haven't thought about that yet," Rhonda sheepishly admitted, causing Penny and Carrie to groan in annoyance.

"Then we'd better get to it. The sooner, the better," Carrie advised.

"But where should we begin? We've only got so much time after all," said Penny.

"Let's try the mall," Rhonda suggested. "It's not much, but there are several stores we can check out and see which one has a good gift for him."

Penny and Carrie thought about their friend's suggestion for a moment; there were too many stores to check out, so the best option was to pick a few and stick to it. Plus, considering Rhonda had no idea what her dad wanted, they decided to help her pick out a good gift and hope for the best. At the least, they wanted to help her out as much as they could.

With that in mind, the two turned their attention to Rhonda, ready to give her their answers.

"Alright, we'll head to the mall and see what happens," said Penny.

"After all, a promise is a promise," Carrie added, while Rhonda sighed with relief, thankful for their help.

* * *

Getting to the mall was much easier than expected; instead of several minutes, the girls arrived in less than ten seconds, due to Carrie having better control of her teleportation ability.

"Thank god you can teleport," said Penny, as she and her friends entered the mall.

"Well I don't like to brag, but I think I got it down," Carrie said with confidence.

"Let's not chat right now. We need to start looking around," Rhonda informed her friends, as the trio looked around to see which store they should go first.

"Since your dad is into sports, why not try the sports shop?" the deer suggested.

"Sounds appropriate," the ghost agreed.

"Sure, why not?" Rhonda stated.

With that in mind, the girls headed to the sports shop, as they began to browse through the store.

'_Let's see, which one looks like a good gift?'_ Rhonda thought. _'Dad already has too much of anything related to baseball and the same goes for football. He's not much of a fan of soccer and he barely has any interest in hockey.'_

"Need a helping hand, ladies?" a voice asked out of nowhere, prompting Rhonda, as well as Penny and Carrie, to look around to find the source, but there was no one in sight.

"Down here," the voice spoke once more, before the trio looked down and saw a rainbow humanoid who was at least half their size, wearing a green and white headband, wearing a white shirt with a "#1" logo on it, grey shorts and a pair of dark purple sneakers. It didn't take them too long to realize who it was.

"Tobias, what are you doing here?" asked Penny, though she was hardly happy to see him.

"Oh, nothing much, except that I've been working here for a while," Tobias nonchalantly replied, trying to flex his muscle, or lack thereof. "So what brings you here?"

"Tobias, if you're trying to hit on Penny, then you're still terrible at it," an unamused Carrie spoke bluntly.

"Besides, Penny already has a boyfriend," Rhonda reminded Tobias, causing him to change his demeanor.

"What does Gumball got that I don't have?!"

"Let me see…" the ghost began. "He's taller than you, actually has a sense of fashion and bothers to drink milk, unlike you, shrimp."

"Don't call me that! Gumball just got lucky in the height apartment, that's all."

"Suddenly, I don't feel like shopping here anymore," said Penny, starting to get annoyed.

"Agreed, let's go," Rhonda stated, as she and her friends left the sports shop as soon as possible, if only to get away from Tobias.

"So does that mean you'll come back?" Tobias called out, only to receive no response from them.

* * *

"So what's next on the agenda?" Carrie asked Rhonda.

"Any store that doesn't feature our short friend," the mouse replied, as she pondered for a moment, before an idea came to mind. "Let's head to the hardware store. My dad likes to fix things whenever he has the chance."

"Sounds good to me," Penny agreed, as the trio head off to the hardware store and began to browse.

"What does your dad build, Rhonda?" Carrie asked out of curiosity. "I don't recall Mr. Paxton building anything."

"Nothing big or important, just repairs and improvements to the house, that's all," Rhonda replied.

"Didn't expect to see you three here," a feminine voice called out, prompting the girls to turn around and see a hybrid with red hair and horns on the side, wearing a dark green shirt, a pair of blue jeans and black boots. Fortunately them, it was one person they were glad to see for a change.

"Jamie, I didn't know you work here," Rhonda spoke with astonishment. Jamie wasn't the kind of person that she used to be back then, as she had actually started getting help for her old behavior. She had received some counseling and had finally stopped picking on others, much to everyone's joy.

"To be honest, I'm only here because my folks wanted me to get a job so I can learn the value of money, or something like that," Jamie explained with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Still, it's actually nice to see you for once," said Penny. "We had an unfortunate run in with Tobias a while ago at the sports shop."

"Dweeb still trying to make you his girlfriend again?" Jamie asked as if it was nothing. "If I were you, I would just clobber him."

"I don't think that would have changed much," Carrie disagreed. "Seriously, for a wimp, he's still pretty hardheaded. Mike can testify to that."

"Can't argue with that," Jamie agreed, as she chuckled. "Anyway, are you sure you three want to get something here?"

"Of course, Jamie. We're just looking around, that's all," Rhonda replied.

"If you're looking for something nice, then good luck. The prices in here are rather high."

Puzzled by the hybrid's last statement, the mouse looked at one of the prices and was dumbstruck when she learned that one of the appliances, a hammer in this case, was double the price of what hammers that she has seen usually cost. Likewise, Penny and Carrie also took a good look elsewhere and were just as dumbfounded as their friend; most of the products were way too expensive for their budgets.

"Are you kidding me?!" Rhonda shouted in frustration.

"There's no way we can afford anything in this place," said a disappointed Penny.

"Considering the quality, I can see why they fetch a hefty price," Carrie stated.

"Then we came here for nothing," Rhonda lamented, before she turned to face Jamie. "Sorry, I guess we'll have to shop somewhere else."

"It's all good. At least you're honest," the hybrid assured the mouse; before she waved goodbye to the girls, as they left the hardware store.

* * *

"The sports shop is worked by someone I don't like and the hardware store is ripping people off. So what's next, Rhonda?" asked Penny.

"Let me see..." Rhonda began, rubbing her chin, as she tried to figure out their next course of action. "I know! Let's get him a watch!"

"...Seriously?" Carrie calmly asked. "I can't believe they're still making those. We have cell phones that can tell time for us."

"C'mon Carrie, just give it a shot," Rhonda pleaded with the ghost. "I don't have any other options, let alone much time."

"Well...alright, if only to get Mr. Paxton something," the ghost reluctantly agreed, before the girls headed to the watch shop to survey some watches, with a few that looked rather high-tech, like they would have come out of a science fiction film.

"So many watches, but none with the right price," Rhonda muttered under her breath. "There's got to be one that I can get for dad."

"Don't worry about it, Rhonda. We still have enough time," Penny assured her friend.

While the trio continued to survey the many watches in the glass case, just a few inches away from him, a certain fingerprinted robber approached Larry, the latter nervous to see the robber once again.

"Um...need any help?" Larry sheepishly asked, before Sal grabbed him by the collar and pressed his face onto his.

"Listen sucka; we knew the routine, so I'm getting straight to the point: gimme the loot or else!"

Sal then grabbed something behind his back, but instead of the usual silverware, what he had in his hand was...

"Oh my god! He has a firearm! A real firearm for once!" the rock humanoid shouted, as he immediately began to open the cash register and give the robber as much money as he had on him.

While Sal looked on with a satisfied look on his face, Rhonda, Penny and Carrie, on the other hand, hid behind the watch display and fortunately for them, it appeared that he wasn't aware of their presence.

"Looks like Sal upgraded to actual weapons," Carrie said quietly.

"I'm just amazed that it took him this long to do that," Penny stated.

"This is becoming ridiculous. I'm not going to go home empty handed because of that would-be robber," Rhonda said in annoyance. "Mask on."

With those words spoken, the mouse was engulfed in a bright white light, before it faded away to reveal Rhonda in her costume, as she got up and calmly approached Sal, much to her friends' surprise.

"Rhonda, what do you think you're doing?!" Penny asked as quietly as she could.

"Taking care of a nuisance," Photondra replied, before she tapped the robber's shoulder to get his attention.

"Whoever you are, you just made a terrible mistake…" Sal trailed off the moment he saw Photondra in person, amazed to see her for the first time. "Hey, you're that mouse chick from the tube."

"I'm not here to play around. I suggest you drop the gun, give that clerk his hard earned money and turn yourself in to the police."

"Aw, isn't that cute?" the robber mockingly asked, laughing his head off, before he quickly put the firearm at Photondra. "What makes you think I'll do just that?"

Unfazed by the robber's intimidation attempt, Photondra calmly smacked the firearm away from her face, to Sal's shock, before the mouse raised her hand and emitted a bright light in his face.

"Agh! Not again! Why do these things always happen to me?!" the robber complained, before the robber felt a blunt object smacking his head, sending him to the floor completely unconscious.

"I see you're still not very durable," Photondra commented, holding a light constructed hammer in her hand, as it disappeared before she picked up the bag of money and gave it to Larry, still frightened by his ordeal. "Here you are, good sir, your hard earned cash." the rock humanoid took the money with a freaked out look on his face before Photondra caused a bright flash, temporarily blinding Larry long enough for her to get around the corner and change out.

"That was a close one, Rhonda," said Carrie.

"But try to be careful next time..." Penny began. "Be glad that no one else was here to see you change into your costume.

"Sorry about that. Guess I was too mad to care about it at the time," Rhonda confessed to her friends. "Anyway, we need to get going before Larry finds out who Photondra is."

"Agreed," Penny and Carrie said simultaneously, before all three left the premises, just as the rock humanoid regained his sight.

"Where did she go? I was going to let her get a watch free of charge."

* * *

A few hours have passed and by now, the sun was starting to set at the mall and to Rhonda's dismay, she had yet to find a gift for her dad, due to being questioned by mall security about Photondra's sudden appearance and disappearance at the mall, after Larry himself explained to them about her heroic acts. Fortunately, the trio managed to convince them that they had no idea about what happened and simply let them go. The mall security were also thankfully clueless about Rhonda being Photondra, which the girls were glad to see happen.

"Talk about a waste of time," Carrie commented in annoyance.

"Tell me about it," Penny agreed. "They just kept asking us the same questions."

"That's nothing compared to the hours we just wasted. We still haven't found something to get for my dad. At this rate, we'll never find anything good," Rhonda gloomily stated.

"We still have enough time, Rhonda. I'm sure you'll find a gift for Mr. Paxton," Penny attempted to cheer up her friend.

"It's not like the answer's right in front of me."

"Or maybe it is," said Carrie, as she pointed to a retail shop just a few inches away from them.

"When did that show up?" Rhonda asked in amazement.

"I guess we were so caught up with everything else that we didn't notice this store," Penny concluded.

"At least you found the answer," Carrie noted, though Rhonda was hardly convinced.

"I don't know, Carrie. I'm not so sure if a retail store is going to help me find a gift,"

"What do you have to lose? Just check it out and maybe you might find something that your dad might like," Penny suggested.

"...Alright, I'll give it chance," a hesitant Rhonda complied, as she and her friends went in to browse around. As they looked around high and low, trying to find the right gift, Rhonda eventually spotted something that prompted her to stop dead in her tracks.

"Wait a minute! This is it! This is the perfect gift for him!"

"Are you sure about it?" asked Penny, as she arched an eyebrow.

"I'm certain of it. All I have to do is buy it and add something to it at the house."

"If that's what you want to do, then go for it," said Carrie.

"I will and thanks for the help," Rhonda insisted, feeling much better now that her situation was finally resolved.

Just then, the girls heard what appeared to be screaming right behind them, prompting them to stick their heads out and see what appeared to be bat dressed up like a magician, but wearing sunglasses. He also had the number 198 on his right ear, as it gave off a pink glow.

"I'm going to make the world amazing with my magic!" the bat magician announced, as he began waving his hands wildly, shooting magic everywhere despite his blindness, as many people were running for their lives.

"Can't we just have one normal day for once?" Rhonda complained.

"Considering what goes on around Elmore, this might as well as be normal," Penny flatly stated.

"Let's just focus on making sure everyone is safe," Carrie reminded her friends.

"Good idea, Carrie," Rhonda agreed, before she handed the gift to her. "You and Penny get as many people as you can to safety, while I'll deal with the blind magician myself."

The two nodded their heads in agreement, before they went out to help anyone in the vicinity, while Rhonda headed towards the bat, hiding behind a pillar near him.

"Mask on!" Rhonda called out, before a bright white light consumed her and faded out, as she came out from behind the pillar as Photondra.

"Hey you! Do everyone a favor and practice real magic for a change," the blind bat magician turned in the direction of the voice, before a smile formed on his face.

"Aw, you must be a Number. You just saved me time having to track you down. No matter, this won't take long."

Before Photondra knew what happened next, the blind magician shot out a wave of magical energy from both hands, prompting her to dodge right away, as they reduced a pillar to ashes in seconds.

'_Yikes! I need to be careful!'_ the white mouse fearfully thought, before she spotted another wave of magical energy going after her, as she barely dodged the attack one more.

Soon, the blind magician began wildly shooting out magic bolts in Photondra's direction, forcing her to continually dodge them, though she began to slowly tire out.

'_What do I do now?! There's no way I can blind him and I can't get close enough to attack him without getting hit.'_

In the midst of her thoughts, the white mouse ended up slipping on a discarded cup, causing her to fall on the floor, as the blind magician finally locked on to her.

"It's a shame that it has to end like this. But no matter, all good things must come to an end."

With that said, the blind magician fired a wave of energy at his target, as Photondra stuck both hands out in what appeared to be a futile attempt of protection. But without warning, a bright glow suddenly formed from her hands, getting brighter with each passing second, before finally, a large beam suddenly shot out, dispersing the oncoming magical energy, much to her surprise.

'_That's a new one,'_ the white mouse thought, before a smile formed on her face. "Looks like the show must go on after all."

"You're alive? But you should be-" the blind magician was suddenly hit by Photondra's beam, sending him down to the ground, before he quickly regained his composure. "Now that's more like it!"

Soon, the two began to shoot their respective powers towards one another, as the white mouse dodged the bat's magic and countered with her beam; but each time she shot one, the beam ended up causing some collateral damage, even if it did manage to hit the blind magician, much to her dismay.

'_I need to be more careful next time,'_ she thought to herself, as she continued to fight back with her beam.

The blind magician, meanwhile, was quite amused upon hearing Photondra's attempt to attack him while avoiding damage to their surroundings, even if he was hurting.

"You really are an amateur," he said with a grin, before unleashing another wave of magical energy at his opponent. The white mouse barely dodged that latest attempt, as she fell down on her back and accidentally shot her beam upwards, blowing a hole in the ceiling, forcing the two to get out of the way before the ceiling collapsed.

"Damn! I could have been squished back there!" the blind magician stated. "Looks like I'm going to cancel my performance for today. Consider yourself lucky."

With that, the blind magician disappeared in a cloud of smoke, as Photondra managed to regain her composure, just as her friends finally arrived, having managed to escort the last people out.

"We got here as fast as we could," said Penny.

"So what happened to that blind bat?" Carrie asked the mouse.

"He managed to get away, but he won't be causing any more problems for now," Phontondra explained the situation to them. Though as much as she wanted to track him down, there was no time for that; right now, she needed to make sure no innocents were in the area before she can return back to her normal self.

"Mask off!" Rhonda exclaimed, as she reverted back into her normal clothes just before anyone arrived on the scene to see it.

"Now's a good time to leave," Carrie suggested, returning the gift back to Rhonda, before all three headed out to the main entrance of the mall, deciding that it was best not to go back there for quite some time.

* * *

**The next day...**

It was Max's birthday at the Paxton residence and for the older mouse, he couldn't be happier to celebrate his birthday with his only daughter, confident that she had got him something good. He didn't know what it was, but he could care less of what kind of gift he had; to him, it was the thought that counts.

"Alright dad, blow out your candles and make a wish," Rhonda teased her father.

"I already got what I want but sure, why not," said Max, as he blew out the candles on his cake, as his daughter approached him with a small present.

"Here you go, dad. It's not much, but it's all I could think of," Rhonda then handed him the gift, as he happily opened it, before Max removed the last piece of wrapping paper and saw something he didn't expect. On his hand was a small silver photo frame and in it was a photo of his younger self, along with a female mouse of the same age, having yellow fur like him, but with red hair, a red blouse, a pair of green jeans and white sandals. For Max, he knew all too well who it was in the photo.

"Rhonda...you shouldn't have," Max spoke in joy, his eyes filled up with tears as he saw his late wife for the first time since her untimely death.

"I wanted to make sure it was special and I hope you like it."

"Like it? I love it!" Max proclaimed, as he hugged his daughter. "This is the best gift I could ever get."

"Thanks dad. I'm glad to hear that," Rhonda happily replied, before she hugged her father back, just glad that everything turned out alright in the end.

_Next time on The Awakened_

_Chapter 7- The Golem_

_Mike begins his training in the mountains with Brian and Carrie along for support, but_ _another OverHundred attack forces a change of plans._


	7. The Golem

**The Awakened**

_An Amazing World of Gumball Story_

By NeoNimbus

Chapter 7-The Golem

It was another typical day at the Badgero residence, but for Mike, something else was on his mind; ever since he received his powers, the maroon badger pondered on where he can train and control his powers wisely. The problem was, however, that there didn't appear to be a place around Elmore that can allow him to train and even if he found one, there's no way he could think of any excuses for the damage he can cause.

'_Now where can I find a place where I can train and not get caught?'_ Mike thought, as he lied on his bed and continued to ponder for a few more minutes, before an idea eventually struck him. "Of course, the answer was in front of me! I can just go hiking up in the mountains and train from there."

Initially, the idea sound good, but soon, it quickly fizzled out, as the downside of said idea came to him.

"But if I go out there on my own, I'll be bored as hell and I'll probably be talking to myself. I don't need to go insane when Gumball alone is already driving me there. Now, who can I drag with me?"

As Mike began to pace around in his bedroom, rubbing his chin intently, two people came to mind, both that he felt could keep him company and not drive him nuts.

"Of course! I should bring Carrie and Brian with me! Might as well bring a sane person, _'and my girlfriend,' _since they won't cause more trouble, unlike Gumball and Darwin," Mike said, feeling his eye twitch.

With that in mind, he picked up his cell phone and began to dial their numbers up, as he waited patiently for one of them to respond.

* * *

Elmore Mountain, a grand destination for those who want to find thrills and excitement in their lives, but for Mike, it was something entirely else: the perfect place to train and hone his powers. With a beautiful scenery and a few good isolated places, it served as the perfect training ground for him and his friends. At least then, he won't bump into that many people during their training.

"Now this is more like it," said Mike, as he, along with Carrie and Brian hiked up the mountain, marveling at the view that's in front of them.

"Is there any reason why you decided to call us?" Brian asked his friend, as he let out a big yawn.

"Mike needed some company when he does his...thing," Carrie reminded the fox, as she chose her words carefully around the older badger.

"Oh yeah, that's right," said Brian, having remembered what Mike told him a while ago.

"Thanks guys. Now I'm truly glad I asked you to come," said an annoyed Mike.

"Aw, you know how much I love helping you," Carrie cooed in his ear as she floated behind him.

"Would you rather have Gumball and Darwin with you?" Brian jokingly asked.

"Don't push your luck. I know what happened a few days ago. What were you thinking?" Mike scolded his friend for his recklessness. "I thought I made it clear: No hero work! We've got enough crap not going our way as it is!"

"What was I supposed to do? I didn't want that OverHundred guy to get away with everything and the cops barely got their act together," Brian argued.

"And what would have happened if you got caught or something?" Mike countered. "You could have made the situation even worse!"

"Guys, quit arguing already!" Carrie spoke out, pushing herself between her boyfriend and the fox. "I get that the situation isn't going in our favor, but being at each other's throats doesn't help improve it. Let's just learn from our mistakes and move on."

"...Alright, but only because I'm done talking about this," Mike reluctantly agreed, just as they finally arrived at their destination.

"About time!" Brian stated. "My legs were starting to feel a bit cramped up from all that walking."

"It's a good thing I'm a ghost," Carrie spoke nonchalantly, before turning to her boyfriend. "So what now?"

"Simple: we just travel to this location on the map. It's one of the few places that's completely isolated from the main trail." Mike explained as he pointed to the dot on said map. It was about another half-mile from their current position.

"We're going to travel that far?!" Brian asked, shocked where they're heading. "Just what I needed, more walking!"

"Quit your complaining, Brian! You're starting to sound just like Gumball," Mike responded to his friend's whining.

"Well he has been hanging out with him for the last few years," Carrie pointed out.

"Shut up," Brian said quietly before Mike bopped him on the head.

"Don't tell my girlfriend to shut up," Mike deadpanned as he continued walking.

"Sorry Mike," Brian apologized, as he followed his friend.

"You'll make it," Carrie simply said, as she floated right next to her boyfriend, before all three began the long walk.

* * *

**Thirty minutes later...**

"Finally, we're here!" Brian happily exclaimed, as he fell down onto his knees, his body feeling exhausted from the constant walking he had to endure. "That walk was just as intense as Kenshin's training exercises."

"Would you rather have that?" Mike joked. "I'm more than happy to make you a track course and make you run ten laps."

"Please, now's not the time," Brian refuted.

"I wouldn't mind that at all," Carrie playfully agreed.

"As much as I love to make jokes, I really need to focus on my training," Mike reminded the two, as he surveyed the area they were in. The peaks were high enough to make it impossible for anyone to see him and it was wide enough to allow more space; in other words, this was the training ground he needed all along.

"So what do you want us to do while you train?" asked Brian.

"Isn't it obvious? You guys can train yourselves while you're here," Mike pointed out.

"Sounds like a good plan," Carrie agreed.

"I can't argue with that," said Brian. "Though I may have to be careful. Lightning tends to burn wood," Brian realized.

Once the trio agreed on their next course of action, they began their training right away, relieved to have the privacy they needed for a while. Brian started off by using his signature Gunslinger move, carefully shooting one jolt of electricity after another at rocks, Carrie began to manipulate the winds to carry a few pebbles off the ground and Mike concentrated as hard as he could, as rock formations began to form up from the ground.

"So far, so good," Mike commented. "But I can do better than this."

Mike then closed his eyes and concentrated much harder than usual; before long, he heard a loud rumbling from underneath his feet and soon, a rock formation began to form and rose up, with the badger on it, until it eventually stopped at the peak, just enough to hide him without being caught.

"Whoops, didn't know I could do that."

"How's the view from up there, Mike?" Brian called out from down below.

"I can see Gumball and Darwin running from Mr. Robinson from here!" Mike replied, as he saw his friends from a distance, their faces filled with terror, as the old puppet was chasing them around with a metal bat.

"So what's happening to them?" Carrie asked loudly.

"Mr. Robinson is apparently done putting up with their crap and is out for blood," Mike said calmly before focusing on getting down. He closed his eyes and concentrated rather calmly, before the formation underneath him slowly descended downward, eventually bringing Mike back to the ground.

"Wow, that was pretty cool," Brian commented.

"But you should be careful next time. You almost got yourself caught," Carrie noted.

"Right, I'll keep that in mind," Mike agreed. "Anyway, let's just get back to our training."

Nodding their heads in agreement, the trio resumed once more with their training, hoping not to accidentally cause one too many problems along the way.

* * *

For the next two hours, the trio continued with their training, making a few mistakes along the way, but also making improvements at the same time. After a few more shots, Brian was able to create a stream of electricity from the tip of his paw, even using it to write his name on one of the rocks, while Carrie was doing her best to get the hang of her air manipulation ability. But of the three that are training, Mike put in a lot of effort to control his own powers.

Aside from forming rock creations, Mike was able to form armor from the rocks around him, creating some added protection, though it was pretty thin and weak so he thought it unusable for now. In addition, he was also able to hurl larger rocks like ammo, depending on the strength of the throw itself. Mike punched the ground by accident and his arm went straight down past the dirt. When he pulled it up; he saw that a huge chunk of rock came up with it, forming another much larger rock hand.

"Wow, this is a new one," Mike spoke with amazement.

"With that arm, you can take out an entire building," Brian commented, as he examined Mike's giant arm.

"With a size like that, it might as well as destroy an entire town with the amount of dirt you just took out," Carrie stated with concern. "You should be careful using that ability."

"Right," Mike agreed, concentrating long enough for the solid rock arm to crumble down back to his normal arm. "Must work on that,"

"Well that's the way the cookie crumbles," Brian amusingly spoke, prompting his friends to look at him.

"Wow, that was even cheesier than Alan and Carmen's corny lines," Carrie deadpanned.

"Seriously, that line is so old," Mike added. "Did your grandfather tell you it?"

"Alright, so it wasn't that good," Brian sheepishly admitted. "Still, that's an impressive move. What are you going to name it?"

"I have to name it?" Mike asked, unsure that it was a necessity.

"Of course, Mike. In fact, I just happened to create..." Brian then posed with his signature move in front of his friends. "The Gunslinger!"

"...The Gunslinger?" Mike finally asked.

"That is so cliché," said an unimpressed Carrie.

"What are you delivering justice via slingshot?" Mike joked at the name.

"Oh c'mon, I think it's a good name," Brian insisted. "Besides, I thought it would make us sound more heroic."

"That's a line that Gumball himself would say," Carrie said otherwise.

"Gumball better not be writing your one-liners," Mike commented.

"Actually, Gumball didn't like it," Brian admitted to his friends. "He also thought it was cliché."

"Good man; he's learning," said a surprised Mike. "Though if it'll make you feel better, I'll call the pillar thing I did earlier… Rising Pillar and I'll call the rock hands… Hammer hands,"

"Not very imaginative," Brian commented.

"Shows how little I care though," Mike countered. "It's still better than anything Gumball will come up with."

"Let's just pray that he doesn't try to come up with corny names for his moves," Carrie commented, before she noticed the sun settling down. "Wow, time flies so fast."

"At least we made some progress with our training," Mike stated. "Let's head back home before our parents start to get worried."

"Agreed. Last time I came late, my parents were a bit freaked out about my whereabouts. I had to come up with an excuse to calm their nerves down," Brian explained to his friend.

"Let's make sure that doesn't happen again," Mike informed the fox, before the three decided to leave the area, having made some improvements over their powers. They suddenly heard screaming in the distance. "Oh what now?"

"Whatever that was, we need to help them right away!" Brian insisted.

"I think it came from that direction," said Carrie, as she pointed to her right.

"Let's go then!" Mike shouted, before all three headed to the direction as fast as they could, preparing themselves to face who or what they are up against.

* * *

It was supposed to be a normal family reunion for Idaho and the Potatoes, with just a bunch of hardworking farmers celebrating and having a fun time with each other at a large picnic. Instead, the entire Potato family suddenly found themselves being terrorized by three individuals: one was an ostrich, the other was dressed as some sort of magician, but the third one was large and in charge but remained a mystery to them, due to the hood obscuring his face.

"Oh my god! What did we do to deserve this?!" one potato shouted at the top of his lungs, as he barely avoided a wave of magical energy.

"Is this some kind of punishment from the almighty?" Idaho asked, before running to the opposite direction to avoid the ostrich's fist.

While the entire Potato family did their best to survive the ordeal, Mike, as well as Brian and Carrie, finally arrived at the scene, as they witnessed it from a distance.

"Say, that's the ostrich guy I fought a while ago. I was wondering what happened to him," Brian commented.

"And that's the blind magician that Rhonda fought with at the mall," Carrie added. They then saw a large hooded figure that made the other two look tiny in comparison.

"Don't know why they're here, but let's make sure they won't get away this time," Mike suggested. "We know what we got to do."

Nodding their heads in agreement, the trio shouted "Mask on!" as they changed into their signature costumes, before they headed out to save the Potatoes from their attackers. Mike threw his hood up to help cover his face and saw that it was pointed down the middle while curving around his eyes.

"Mike, why are you wearing your hood?" Phantasma asked as she saw him put it up.

"You'll see soon enough," Golem assured her, "We can't afford to waste time with chit-chat. Let's go!"

"Don't worry you guys! Help is on the way!" Lightning assured the frightened Potatoes.

"Say, aren't those the funny looking people we kept hearing about?" an elderly potato asked out.

"Why is that blue one dressed up like that? She should be ashamed of herself," another berated Carrie for her outfit.

'_It wasn't my idea to come out like this,'_ Phantasma thought, still annoyed at Anais for making her such an outfit, as she and her friends finally made their way down to them. "Look, I know everyone is afraid, but right now, just stay calm and don't panic. We're here to help out."

"Phantasma, look out!" Lightning shouted, prompting Phantasma to turn around and immediately shoot out a gust of air at the ostrich, to the amazement of the Potato family.

"D-Did she shoot out some air from her hand?" Idaho asked his family.

"Why yes son, she did indeed," the patriarch replied and for a moment, the family remained at awe of Phantasma's skills. A few seconds later, however, the look of awe was replaced by sheer terror and everyone began to panic.

"What part of 'don't panic' did they not understand?" Phantasma was rather annoyed that the people they were trying to save behaved in such a manner.

"They're just afraid, Phantasma. We can't get mad at them for that," Golem answered his girlfriend's question, before turning to his friends. "Right now, let's focus on saving them. Lightning, you take care of the ostrich; Phantasma, you get the magician. I'll take care of that hooded figure myself."

Lightning and Phantasma nodded their heads, having understood his instructions, before they went to face their respective foes, the former making his way to his opponent.

"Hey ruffled feathers!" the ostrich turned around and saw the yellow fox in front of him, much to his shock and fury.

"You again?! Didn't expect to see you here."

"And I didn't expect to see you terrorizing an entire family." Lightning remarked, before he put himself in a fighting stance. "But I'm not here to play around."

"Likewise," said the ostrich, as he also prepared to fight his opponent.

* * *

The blind magician needed to blow off some steam, especially when he ended up beaten rather badly by that mouse the other day and striking terror in a family turned out to be the one thing he needed, if only he could turn them into mashed potatoes.

'_Now this is more like it,'_ he thought to himself, continuing to shoot one wave of magical energy after another, until a sudden gust of wind promptly launched him into the nearest tree, as he slammed his head on one of the branches.

"Ow! What the-" before the blind magician could finish his words, he suddenly found himself grabbed by the throat and found himself pinned on the same tree. Although he couldn't see his attacker, he could hear who it was: it sounded feminine but it was clear to him that it wasn't the same individual from the mall; in fact, she sounded much angrier.

"Has it ever occurred to you that there are kids in this area?" Phantasma darkly questioned the bat.

"Why should that matter? If they get in the way, they get in the way," the blind magician nonchalantly replied, as he felt the pressure on his throat tighten.

"Wrong answer; you better be careful what you say next..." Phantasma warned him, much to his discomfort.

'_This is much worse than last time.'_ the blind magician frantically thought to himself, as he felt his head sweating like mad.

* * *

With his friends occupied against their respective opponents, Golem ran after the hooded figure as he ran through the woods. They were a lot farther away from where they started, but at least Golem didn't have to worry of accidentally harming anyone.

'_I'm walking into a trap then. Very well,' _Golem thought as he continued to give chase to the large figure,_ 'Might as well indulge our guest," _Eventually he came to another clearing which the figure came to a stop in.

"I got you right where I needed," the hooded figure calmly replied, before he removed his cloak, revealing a black furred gorilla that Mike could tell was way bigger than him even with the distance between them. He appeared to be dressed up in some military-like outfit, right down to the camouflage pants, with the number 190, glowing brightly on his left bicep.

"Just what I need, an escaped military zoo animal," Golem talked out loud, though the militant gorilla was indifferent to his outburst.

"I am not here for humor. What I am doing is preparing for your doom." The gorilla's voice was deep and calm as Mike braced himself for whatever was coming his way. Despite his size, the gorilla was rather fast, as he ran on all fours, before he leaped upwards, raising both of his fists high and slamming them down hard on his opponent. Golem, though, managed to dodge his attack, but barely, as he felt the shockwave pushing him a distance away from him.

"Jeez! This is going to be a tough one," Golem said to himself, as he managed to get up and see his opponent charging at him once more. Mike dodged again but got caught on his recovery and was sent flying by a kick to the back.

"I expected more from you," the gorilla spoke in disappointment, feeling that the green badger wasn't living up to his expectations. "No matter, I'll make this quick and painless."

"You want more?" Mike asked as he looked up from his knees. "Very well…" Mike proceeded to punch the ground with his hands, both going straight through. "Let me show you..." He pulled his arms out to show two giant rock fists, impressing the gorilla, "...What I really can do!"

Stunned by this amazing display, the gorilla shook himself back to reality as his opponent promptly slammed down towards the gorilla with his giant-sized fists; he attempted to block it, but the sheer weight proved unbearable for him, as his arms and legs started to give out on him, before he pushed himself out of harm's way. Mike didn't allow any recovery time as he caused a pillar to rise from the ground, launching the gorilla who managed to recover and land on his feet..

"Not bad, badger, but not good enough either," the gorilla spoke with amusement, as he managed to regain his composure and charged right at Golem once again.

Undaunted by the gorilla's attempt, Golem acted on impulse and proceeded to turn the rocks in his fists into projectiles, sacrificing the fists but unleashing a wave of earth. Even though the gorilla appeared to be unfazed, he did see that the rocks were causing damage, even slowing him down as well.

"So much for that idea," Golem muttered to himself, before he formed a rock formation underneath him, raising it just high enough for him to avoid the gorilla's charge attack. "This guy is really persistent."

"Is that all you got?" the gorilla asked out loud. The green badger looked down from his newly made perch and started to think of anything he could do. Then he got an idea…

"Time for me to make it rain!" Golem jumped up and brought his foot down hard on the pillar, causing it to shatter and crumble.

In response, the gorilla raised both arms for protection, shielding himself from the raining rocks, before he looked up and noticed another wave of raining rocks coming at him. Soon, there were more showing up, as Golem created a few more rock formations, shattering them with each stomp, until there were too much for the gorilla to handle, as he was consumed whole in the process.

"Enjoy your dirt nap!" the green badger shouted at the buried gorilla, as he lowered himself down, before he sensed a faint vibration from the debris, as the gorilla raised his arm, before collapsing, letting Golem know that he lost consciousness.

'_I've got to make sure that my friends are safe,'_ Golem thought to himself, before he headed back to where he started.

* * *

Taking care of both the ostrich and the blind magician proved to be much easier than they thought; Lightning managed to get the former to drop his guard down before shocking him in the back, while Phantasma intimidated the latter so much, he lost consciousness in the process. But what they were really amazed is that, aside from the food now being splattered around the area, most of the Potatoes made it out alive and well.

"Thank god no one got hurt," said Lightning, as he tied up their foes tightly with rope.

"Let's make sure these goons don't go anywhere this time," Phantasma stated, using her air ability to lift them up as Lightning tied the rope to the nearest branch.

"Thank you kind folks for saving us back there!" Idaho praised the two, as he and the rest of the Potatoes approached them.

"You sure showed those scoundrels who's boss," one Potato exclaimed.

"Also, change that outfit of yours, dearie," another criticized Phantasma.

'_I wish I could do that,'_ Phantasma thought, before she spotted her boyfriend coming out of the woods, much to her relief.

"Golem, how'd it go?" Lightning asked.

"I'm breathing, aren't I?" Golem commented.

"At least you took care of that problem," said Phantasma. "Anyway, we should get going now. It's almost getting dark."

The boys nodded their heads in agreement, waving a goodbye to the Potatoes, before they made their way back down the mountain.

* * *

After making sure that no one was around, the trio were able to change back to their normal attire, as they began the long walk back home to town, all the while trying to come up with an explanation for showing up late at their respective houses.

"S-So what are we going to tell our parents?" Brian nervously asked one of his friends.

"We'll just tell them that we went hiking and that it took us much longer to make our way back," Mike calmly replied.

"As long as they accept it, then we're in the clear," Carrie added.

"I suppose that could work," said Brian, before another thought occurred. "What about that area we were training in a while ago?"

"What about it?" asked Carrie, arching an eyebrow in curiosity.

"It did help us train in peace, but what about our parents? They'll get suspicious if they notice we're gone for too long," Brian pointed out.

"We'll come up with something, Brian, just as long as it's believable to them," Mike assured his friend. "But right now, let's get some rest. I'm beat."

With that, the trio continued to walk back home, all the while feeling that they had made some progress on their training and put them to good use.

_Next time on The Awakened_

_Chapter Eight-The Phantasma_

_Carrie's attempt to control her powers doesn't go as she had planned and she turns to Mike and Penny to help her out._

**Tidbits**

**-For this chapter, Sal and I decided to give the gang a training ground of sorts so that they can practice their new abilities without drawing suspicion.**

**-Regarding the uses over their powers, the characters won't go overboard with them, especially if they're facing any future villains in this story.**

**I hope everyone enjoyed this so far and I'll be seeing ya next chapter!**


	8. The Phantasma

**Greetings fellow readers, I apologized for the very long delay. I ran into some obstacles that prevented me from posting this chapter much sooner than expected, with the internet down being one of them.**

**But now that I got that out of the way, I hope the wait was worth it and I hope everyone gets the chance to check this chapter out.**

**Enjoy!**

**The Awakened**

_An Amazing World of Gumball Story_

By NeoNimbus

Chapter 8-The Phantasma

Saturday morning had come at the Krueger residence, as Carrie yawned and stretched her arms, getting ready to practice her air manipulation abilities. Ever since she had received them, she had to control them as best as she could, especially when she was in public; one time, she accidentally unleashed her powers in the school hallway, causing a big ruckus in the process. Carrie was just fortunate that she made a quick getaway, although she would have preferred for it not to happen again.

"Might as well get ready for the day," said Carrie, before she went to her closet and quickly put on her chosen attire. "So let's get this started."

Carrie closed her eyes, raising her hands and a ball of air was starting to form, letting out a slight breeze in her room, much to her relief.

'_So far, it's off to a good start.'_ Carrie thought to herself, as the ball of air slowly started to expand, increasing the breeze within her room in return. For a while, it appeared that the ghost was starting to get the hang of her ability, that is, until the ball started growing out of control.

'_Are you serious?!'_ Carrie angrily thought, as she attempted to keep it in check; despite putting in all of her effort, the ball of air eventually became too big for the ghost to contain and soon, it spread all over her bedroom, destroying everything in its path.

"Oh boy," Carrie simply commented, before her bedroom door opened, revealing her mother peeking in, no doubt curious about what happened.

"Carrie, are you okay?" Vivian then got a look at the state of the room. "Would you mind explaining why your room is such a mess?"

"Maybe I like it as a mess, mom," Carrie quickly replied, which only garnered more confusion from Vivian.

"Alright, if you say so," Vivian reluctantly accepted her daughter's words. "Just make sure you clean this bedroom right away. I did not raise a slob."

With that, Vivian gently closed the door behind her, while Carrie let out a sigh of relief, glad to know that her mom was a bit absent-minded.

'_Maybe I should get some help,'_ she thought, before she pulled her cellphone from her pocket and called in the only two people she could think of.

* * *

Carrie waited patiently for quite some time, all the while she floated back and forth, trying to avoid causing more problems with her parents. Eventually, she heard the doorbell ring, prompting her to immediately make her way to the door and open it to see Mike and Penny on the front porch.

"I'm so glad to see you two," Carrie greeted her friends, as she allowed them in her house. "So how's everything with you guys?"

"I was fast asleep until I got your phone call," Mike replied, as he let out a yawn. "We could have got here sooner if Mr. Fitzgerald didn't get in the way."

"I know my dad can be abrasive Mike, but he means well," Penny insisted.

"He threatened to call the police just from me knocking on the door," Mike retorted.

"I still see that Mr. Fitzgerald is just as protective as ever," Carrie commented with amusement. "But seriously, I really need some help. I've been trying to control my wind powers, but it always ends up creating a mess. I could use some help from you guys."

"Carrie, who are you talking to back there?" Archibald called out from the living room.

"Just Mike and Penny, that's all," Carrie called back.

"Oh, didn't expect Stripes to be here," Archibald commented, as he quickly made his way to see the three kids, before eyeing Mike. "Looks like you still have some meat on your body as always."

"I get called that so much I might just have to change my name." Mike simply stated as he rubbed his belly.

"I still see you have your usual sarcasm," said Archibald, before he quickly made his way to his daughter. "Just promise that you and your boyfriend don't do any funny business while he's here."

"Dad!" Carrie scolded her father, all the while she could feel her face blushing like mad.

"I'm just saying," Archibald defended himself, before he spotted his wife coming from the kitchen.

"Now Archie, you should really be careful what you're saying. What our daughter does is her own business. We should respect her privacy," Vivian berated her husband. "As long as it's clean privacy," she said as she gave an aside glance to Mike.

"...Alright, I'll try my best to stay out of their way," Archibald reluctantly agreed.

"Are your parents always like this?" Penny whispered to Carrie.

"Believe me, they can be quite a pain sometimes," Carrie whispered back to her friend.

"Did you two say anything?" asked a curious Vivian.

"Nope, not a single word," Carrie replied with a straight face, before she, Mike and Penny quickly went upstairs, wanting to prevent the situation from becoming even more awkward than it already was.

* * *

"I thought that would never end," said Carrie, as she quickly locked her bedroom behind her. "I hate it when my dad does that."

"No kidding," Mike agreed. "He seems quite sure I was going to do THAT every time I stop by."

"Does this happen all the time?" asked Penny, surprised to hear that last statement.

"Definitely," Carrie simply replied, before shaking her head. "That said, here's what I got so far."

The ghost closed her eyes and raised both hands up, as a ball of air slowly formed from within, much to the amazement of both Mike and Penny.

"Wow, that's a neat trick," Mike remarked.

"Looks like you're doing well with it," Penny stated. "It's not giving you any trouble, is it?"

Before she could answer Penny's question, the ball of air quickly enlarged in response before forcefully releasing itself from Carrie's palm, once again tearing a path through the bedroom, while Mike and Penny dove for cover. Eventually, the ball of air disappeared into nothing, leaving yet another mess in the room once more.

"Does that answer your question?" Carrie asked sarcastically, just as Penny and Mike came out of their hiding spots.

"I didn't expect that kind of answer," Penny retorted, still surprised by what had happened.

"Maybe next time you should give us a heads up," Mike said.

"Kids, what's going on up there?" Vivian asked from downstairs.

"It's nothing, mom," Carrie lied. "We're just redecorating."

"I hope so, Carrie. I don't want to come up there and see another mess like the one in the morning," said Vivian, much to Carrie's relief, as she had accepted her answer for the moment, before she turned to the two once again.

"So can you guys help me?"

"Carrie I've been dating you for a little over three years now," Mike answered. "I think by this point it's a given that I'm gonna stand by you."

"Same here!" Penny added happily.

"Thanks guys," Carrie smiled, touched by their loyalty.

"There's a smile," Mike pointed out, "But let's trained somewhere else. The last thing we need is your parents barging in."

"Wait, you two know a place to train?" Penny asked her friends, prompting them to realize that she wasn't aware of their new training grounds they found a while ago.

"It's not much, but it's the only place that is secure and isolated," Carrie explained to her friend.

"Just promise us that you won't complain too much about its location," said Mike.

Penny pondered for a moment, thinking of her answer, before she turned to the two.

"Just where is it located?"

* * *

After letting Archibald and Vivian know of their plans for today, Carrie, along with her boyfriend and Penny, went off to Elmore Mountain, as the two lead the deer to the isolated area that she, Mike and Brian practiced in a week ago. As soon as they arrived, Penny was amazed by what she was seeing.

"Wow, you guys weren't kidding about this place," an astonished Penny commented, as her eyes widen at their destination.

"At least here, we can practice our powers without anyone seeing us," said Carrie.

"The last thing I want is to bring in the reporters. I can't imagine how our parents will react knowing that we've been keeping this kind of secret from them," Mike stated.

"Makes sense to me. I don't know how I would ever explain this to my dad," Penny lamented.

"Look, let's not mope around. We're here to practice, not be depressed," Mike reminded the girls.

Both Carrie and Penny nodded their heads in agreement, before they, as well as the maroon badger, positioned themselves away from each other to give everyone space. Mike started off by raising a few rock formations, while Penny used her healing powers on some brittle leaves and Carrie once again tried to contain the ball of air within her grasp. However, she was only able to contain it for no more than few minutes, before it once again escaped, forcing Mike and Penny to dodge out of the way.

"Damn! This is going to be a lot tougher than I thought," Carrie cursed to herself.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Carrie. You're not going to get it right on your first try. You just have to keep trying," Penny attempted to encourage her friend.

"Penny's right, Carrie. Just keep practicing and you'll get it," Mike assured his girlfriend.

Carrie could only smile in response, touched by their words of encouragement, as she took a deep breath and raised her arms up, creating the ball of air once more. Much to her, Mike and Penny's surprise, the ball was staying in place for a change.

'_I wonder...'_ Mike thought, thinking that there might be a reason why Carrie's latest attempt turned out to be so much of an improvement.

"Mike, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Penny asked the maroon badger, causing him to snap back to reality.

"Yeah, I think so, but let's wait for Carrie before we can let her know,"

Penny nodded her head in agreement, as she and Mike continued to watch Carrie, who continued to maintain the ball of air like it was nothing, much to her astonishment.

"Wow, I can't believe I'm doing it! Are you guys seeing this?!"

In her moment of excitement, however, the ball of air suddenly became imbalanced and released itself from Carrie's grasp, quickly encircling the isolated area, with Mike quickly raising a rock formation to shield himself and Penny from its wrath. Once the ball of air disappeared out of sight, Mike released the rocks, as he and Penny approached his disappointed girlfriend.

"I knew it was too good to be true!" Carrie bemoaned, as she threw her arms in frustration.

"Sorry things didn't work out, but I think we might have found a clue on how to control your powers," Mike informed his girlfriend, prompting her to look at him with curiosity.

"Alright, you got my attention. What is it?"

"I think you might need to stay calm and not get so worked up about your powers," Mike answered Carrie's question.

"...What?" the ghost simply asked as if that was the dumbest thing she had ever heard.

"What Mike means is that you can't concentrate too hard and you can't get excited," Penny explained to her friend. "That's why your power ends up like that."

"So let me get this straight..." Carrie began. "You're telling me that all I have to do is just remain calm so that I can use my powers correctly?"

"That's pretty much what we're saying," Mike replied, with Penny nodding her head in agreement.

Carrie rubbed her chin, thinking about the new information that was given to her. Sure, it sounded outlandish, but they might be onto something; if what they were telling her was true, then the answer was right in front of her this whole time.

Her mind made up, Carrie was about to respond back to the two when Mike raised his arm, causing her to remain silent, much to her curiosity.

"Mike, what's going on?"

"I'm sensing some activities back home," Mike explained. "In fact, I think it's coming from Downtown Elmore. I think it's big, too."

"So what are we waiting for? Let's head there right now." Penny suggested.

Everyone nodded their heads, before the three quickly changed into their costumes and headed to Elmore as fast as they could.

* * *

Downtown Elmore was used to the poverty and crime that goes on, but what everyone in the area saw went way beyond their own comprehension. For no apparent reason, a mysterious brown elephant, dressed up like a 1950s biker with a crimson number 122 on his left ear was currently firing lasers from his trunk, laughing as he did it.

"Oh man, this is so much fun!" the biker elephant happily said to himself, before unleashing another laser from his trunk. "I love the smell of chaos!"

As the biker elephant continued on with his rampage, with everyone running for cover, Golem, Savior and Phantasma finally arrived at the scene, the former using his seismic senses to track down the source of said rampage.

"Is that...a biker elephant?" Savior asked incredulously.

"Considering this is Elmore, I don't think it should be that much of a surprise at this point," Phantasma nonchalantly commented.

"It doesn't matter who or what he is. The fact is, he's going to get someone killed. We have to stop him," Golem reminded the two.

Agreeing with Golem on his last statement, the three cautiously approached their target, hoping that they can take him out with a quick ambush; halfway to their destination, however, Phantasma ended up stepping on a discarded soda can, prompting the biker elephant to turn around and see the three costumed heroes in front of him, much to his delight.

'_Crap! I need to be careful next time!'_ she thought, before the biker elephant shot another laser at the trio, prompting them to dodge to the side.

"You three saved me the trouble of looking for you. No matter, I'll burn you all to a crisp anyway," the biker elephant spoke with indifference, before his eyes and trunk lit up and he fired another laser at them.

Golem quickly raised a rock formation from underneath the pavement to form a barrier for him and his friends to take cover, preventing the laser from hitting them. As the biker elephant slowly approached his targets, Phantasma looked at Golem, hoping that he might have an answer to their situation.

"Golem, think of something quickly! This barrier of yours isn't going to last!"

"She's got a point," Savior agreed with her. "There's got to be a way of getting close to him without getting blasted."

"Alright you two, just chill out and let me think for a moment," Golem stated out loud, as he rubbed his chin intently, before an idea stuck out. "I think I got it!"

"You do?!" both Phantasma and Savior asked, before Golem turned his attention to his girlfriend.

"Phantasma, you have to you use your wind powers against him. It's our best shot to take him down."

"I don't know..." Phantasma expressed her doubts. "Didn't you recall what happened during our training?"

"We already discussed this. Just be calm. You'll be fine."

Phantasma continued to look at the two, still doubtful of what she was capable of. On one hand, she could end up harming a lot of people in the process, not to mention causing a lot more damage to the area. On the other hand, she can take a chance, use their advice and see if it was indeed possible to control her ability.

With that in mind, Phantasma turned to her teammates, ready to give them her answer.

"Alright, let's do this!"

"Glad to hear that," Golem said with a smile, before getting the two girls to huddle up. "Now, here's the plan."

* * *

The biker elephant continued on with his offensive, blasting away the shield with his laser. As he made his way over to the heroes, he amusedly thought that it was going to be easy to kill the three of them, knowing that they would rather hide than fight back.

'_This is going to be a cinch. As soon as these losers are gone, I'll just report to Lucas and be on my way.'_

But as he finally approached his seemingly defenseless targets, something unexpected happened; out of nowhere, a rock formation formed underneath him, quickly rising up and knocking him into the air, before he landed on his back.

"What the hell?!" the biker elephant exclaimed in surprise, before a fist flew right in his face.

'_Ow! That really hurt!'_ Savior thought, as she rubbed her sore knuckles. _'I need to be careful next time.'_

As Savior distanced herself from her opponent, Phantasma approached the injured biker elephant, who was starting to regain his composure.

'_Alright, you can do this. Just be in a calm and serene state and it should work.'_

Phantasma then took a deep breath, before raising her hand to form a ball of air, slowly stabilizing it, as it enlarged within each passing second. Despite her struggle, Phantasma was surprisingly able to keep the ball of air in check, much to her relief.

"I can't believe it really works," Phantasma quietly said to herself, just as her opponent finally managed to regain his footing.

"Oh, I'm scared of a little ball of air. How are you going to stop me with it?" the biker elephant mockingly spoke, as he prepared to shoot his laser once more.

"Why don't you find out for yourself?" Phantasma asked with a smirk, before she threw the ball of air right at the stunned biker elephant. Before he had a chance to react, he ended up getting caught in it, as the ball of air suddenly transformed into a miniature tornado, with him in the center.

"Woah! What the hell is this?!"

"That would be my own signature attack," Phantasma stated, before she raised one hand and manipulated the unfortunate elephant within, causing him to slam into one building after another, before she raised the tornado and allowed it to disappear, causing the biker elephant to slam face first into the pavement.

"I...hate you..." was all he could muster, before he finally lost consciousness.

"That was amazing!" Golem praised his girlfriend, as he, along with Savior, approached her, having witnessed what she had just accomplished.

"I've got you and Savior to thank," Phantasma insisted.

"Still, it was nice that you finally got the hang of your ability," Savior commented.

As the trio continued on with their conversation, they didn't noticed some of the weary citizens coming out from their hiding spots and approaching the three, having finally realized what was going on.

"Did you three take that biker out?"

"That was awesome! You showed him who's boss!"

"But try to be careful next time. Seriously, don't overdo it."

As the civilians continued to congratulate the three, a police siren suddenly came from the distance, disrupting the brief celebration in the process.

"Looks like the police are on their way here," Savior noted.

"I doubt they're going to listen to our side of the story," Phantasma commented.

"Let's not stick around then. The sooner we leave, the better," Golem suggested.

With that, Phantasma had the two huddle up with her and she quickly teleported them out of sight, to everyone's astonishment, just as the police finally arrived at the scene.

* * *

In a matter of seconds, Mike, Carrie and Penny were transported right in front of the Krueger residence, quickly deactivating their masks once they were certain that they were all alone, before they walked towards the front porch.

"That was a close one back there," said a relieved Penny.

"No kidding. I didn't expect the cops to come by so soon," Carrie agreed.

"At least some of the people are starting to see that we're the good guys this time around, unlike our debut," Mike recalled. "Still, we need to be careful next time. We don't want to get carried away with our powers."

"We'll keep that in mind," Penny agreed, before she looked up and noticed that the sun was starting to set. "Looks like I need to get going now. See you guys later."

With that in mind, Penny got up from the front porch and walked back to her home, leaving just Carrie and Mike alone in the Krueger residence.

"Mike..." Carrie began, as her face blushed a little. "I just wanted to thank you for helping me to learn to control my powers. If it wasn't for your help, I still would have had a hard time with it."

"Don't mention it, Carrie," Mike accepted her thanks. "Glad I could help out. It was nice that I got to hang out with you today."

"Same here."

Both the maroon badger and the ghost looked at one another, staring at each other's eyes rather dreamily. But before they can do what they were both thinking, a certain older ghost made his presence known to them.

"Am I interrupting anything?" Archibald asked out loud, causing Carrie and Mike to turn around and see him in front of them, much to their dismay.

"We were in the middle of something until you showed up," Carrie bluntly replied.

"Before you say another word, no, I haven't done anything "funny" with your daughter," Mike adamantly insisted.

"That's what I thought…" Archibald began, before he got close to Mike's face. "It better stay that way."

"Yeah, sure." Mike calmly said, unfazed by Archibald's action. "Anyway, I'll see you later Carrie."

Mike then got up from the front porch and made his way back home, while Carrie and her father went inside, the former annoyed that the moment was ruined by the latter.

"You enjoy doing that, don't you?" asked Carrie.

"That's why I'm a ghost," Archibald jokingly replied.

Carrie, for her part, simply smiled and shook her head. Even though the day didn't end the way she wanted, at least a few good things came out in the end.

_Next time on The Awakened_

_Chapter 9-The Toaster_

_Richard decides to spend some quality time with Gumball, much to his embarrassment, interrupting him at the wrong time in his training._

**Tidbits**

**-Originally, Carrie's parents didn't have much of a role in The Newcomer, due to it being their only appearances, so for the sequel, expect to see more of them in the future.**

**I hope everyone enjoyed The Phantasma. We are half way through the Training Arc, so it shouldn't be long until there's some real action. I'll be seeing ya next chapter!**


	9. The Toaster

**The Awakened**

_An Amazing World of Gumball Story_

By NeoNimbus

Chapter 9: The Toaster

Normally for Richard, he wouldn't bother watching the news, always preferring to either sleep all day or play some of the games the kids had bought. But over the last few weeks, he had suddenly gotten wind of eight costumed heroes appearing out of nowhere and they apparently were the real deal, much to his joy. Soon enough, he managed to get caught up hearing the stories from at least some of said costumed heroes. Just recently, he had been paying very close attention to the most recent incident on TV, as the news reporter described the event that unfolded.

"This is Mark Call on yet another news report regarding the costumed heroes. Apparently, there was a claim that an elephant wearing biker clothes had somehow managed to shoot lasers from both his eyes and trunk, until three heroes emerged and managed to take him down. Right now, I am going to ask the few citizens that lived here and listen to what they have to-"

Suddenly, the TV turned off before the reporter could even get a chance to finish his sentence, much to Richard's dismay.

"No, not now! I was just about to listen to what they were doing!" Richard exclaimed in frustration.

"I think you've watched enough news for one day, Richard," a certain female voice that Richard was all too familiar with, as he turned around and saw Nicole standing right behind him, holding the remote in one paw. It was then that he noticed the look of disapproval on her face.

"Honey, what's wrong? I thought you wouldn't be bothered by me watching the news."

"Normally that would be the case, but ever since those eight showed up, the atmosphere around town has become...a bit intense and I don't like it one bit," Nicole explained, despite her moment of hesitation.

"But those eight have been doing a good job in saving the town," Richard argued.

"In case you haven't paid attention, they've caused hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to the city and that was only on the first day they showed up!" Nicole countered.

"I'm sure they never meant to do it on purpose. Besides, what's so bad about them to begin with?" Richard questioned his wife.

"I'll tell you what's so bad about them..." an irate Nicole began. "They suddenly show up and begin using powers, Richard! Powers that I thought only existed in comics, movies and video games! Now that I know they are real, I'm more worried about our children's safety."

"I'm sure they'll never harm our kids," Richard did his best to assure his now worried wife.

"That reminds me, Richard; I was thinking that you need to spend some more time with Gumball," the moment Nicole said those words caught Richard by complete surprise.

"W-Why would you say that?" Richard asked in a mixture of confusion and discomfort, as his wife spoke once more.

"Ever since he began his junior year, he's been spending too much time with most of his friends. Not that it's a bad thing, but I'm just concerned that he's being a bit distant. Plus, the other day, Principal McCaw informed me that Gumball was caught streaking!"

"Yeah, I was wondering why Gumball kept showing up at home with only his gym clothes," Richard commented, while trying not to laugh too hard.

"That's beside the point," said Nicole, getting her husband's attention. "Just hang out with Gumball for today, that's all I'm asking."

Richard continued to look at his wife, unsure how to respond. A part of him didn't really want to bother. On the other hand, seeing the concerned look on his wife's face made him realize just how serious she was and the last thing he wanted to do was to upset her.

"Alright dear, I'll hang out with Gumball for the day."

"Thank you, Richard," said Nicole, satisfied to hear his answer. "Anyway, I have to get to work now. Hope you and Gumball have a good time."

With that, Nicole headed out the door, while Richard got up from the couch and made his way to his sons' bedroom.

* * *

It was just the usual routine for Gumball, as he, along with Darwin, prepared to properly control their powers, as they prepared themselves for future battles against the OverHundreds. Having taken Mike's advice to heart, the two had done the best they could to get used to their new powers, although they have caused some problems, including one incident which led to them being chased across town by Mr. Robinson swinging a baseball bat. They were just glad that he calmed down enough or they certainly wouldn't be alive right now.

"Are the windows closed?" Gumball asked his brother.

"They're as tight as they can be. I just hope it won't end up like last time," Darwin commented, having checked the bedroom window to make sure it was sturdy and tight.

"I keep telling you, I never meant to burn down his car!" Gumball argued.

"Maybe you should be careful where you're shooting next time!" Darwin retorted.

"Alright Darwin, I get it. We'll just need to prepare ourselves better whenever we train," Gumball quickly said, not wanting to get into a big argument. "Anyway, you know the drill."

Darwin simply nodded his head, as the two began to quietly train their powers; Gumball concentrated very hard, as a fireball formed in his paw, praying that he wouldn't ignite himself again, while Darwin closed his eyes to manipulate the water from his large fishing bowl, changing it into a few shapes and forms. It appeared that, for a minute, that they'll have a seemingly peaceful time training until...

"Gumball, are you there?" Richard called out; unknowingly interrupting his sons' training, as Gumball suddenly lit himself alight.

"Aah! I was so close!"

"Don't worry Gumball, I got this!" Darwin informed his brother, before he used his powers to splash water all over him. Fortunately, thanks to his mask, Gumball's clothes remained quite intact.

"Thanks for the help," Gumball showed his gratitude to Darwin, before he made his way to the bedroom door and opened it to see his dad standing right in front of him.

"Um, is there something you need, dad?" he asked with uncertainty. But what came out of his father's mouth was something he didn't expect to hear at all.

"Actually, I do! How would you like to hang out with your old man?!"

Gumball didn't respond right away, as he stood there, sweating like mad. But it wasn't hanging out with his father that made him worried, but rather, how he'll react if he knew he had superpowers. He still couldn't get it under control and if Richard found out...it was something that Gumball decided not to dwell on too much.

"Son, what's wrong?" Richard finally asked, snapping Gumball back to reality.

"It's nothing dad..." he began, as his eyes darted away from his father. "It's just that I'm going to be a bit busy today and I don't know if I have enough time to-"

Just then, Gumball heard what sounded like whimpering, as his eyes darted back to the source to find that it was coming from Richard, his eyes swelling up with tears and looking like he was about to burst any minute now. Gumball didn't know what to say, as the sight was too much to bear, before he turned to Darwin, hoping he might have an answer to this.

"Don't worry Gumball. We can continue with our thing later. Just hang out with Mr. Dad."

Gumball was a bit irritated to hear his brother's answer, but decided not to argue with him, as he turned to face his father once more, ready with his answer.

"Alright, I'll hang out with you for today, but just please stop what you're doing," Gumball reluctantly replied, as the sad expression from Richard's face was replaced by a happy beaming smile.

"You just made me the happiest guy in the world!" Richard shouted with joy, as he gave Gumball one big hug to the point of almost crushing him.

"Don't...mention it! But let me go...please!" Gumball barely blurted his words out, prompting Richard to release his son from his grasp.

"Sorry about that. Looks like I got carried away. Now c'mon, let's go have some fun!"

Before Gumball could say anything, Richard grabbed him by the wrist and immediately dashed his way out to the front door, as Darwin looked on with concern.

'_Oh boy, this won't end well,'_ Darwin thought to himself.

"Darwin, what's going on?" asked a certain child prodigy, as Darwin turned to see a curious Anais looking at him.

"Hi Anais. Just so you know, Mr. Dad wanted to hang out with Gumball and took him outside so they can have fun," the two-legged fish explained.

"Wait, did you say that dad is hanging out with Gumball?" asked Anais, prompting Darwin to nod his head to confirm her question, as she spoke once more. "If dad finds out that Gumball's got superpowers, he might blurt it out to everyone in town! We have to follow them and make sure Gumball doesn't do anything reckless!"

"So what are we waiting for? Come on!" Darwin exclaimed, before he and his sister quickly rushed outside to track down Gumball and their father.

* * *

Gumball couldn't believe how his day was turning out for him; instead of staying home to perfect his fire ability, he ended up being dragged to the park by his happy-go-lucky father, as he held his paw and frolicked to the park like a giddy child, much to his embarrassment.

"Dad, don't hold my hand in public! It's embarrassing!" Gumball demanded, as he desperately wanted to disappear, due to the many onlookers that were starting to take notice.

"C'mon son, I just want to bond with you," Richard insisted, oblivious to the scene he's making.

"I mean it dad, let go of me right now!" Gumball demanded once again. This time, Richard stopped what he was doing, as he finally released his son's wrist from his hand. "Jeez, what has gotten into you?"

"I just wanted to hang out with you, that's all," he simply replied.

Unimpressed by his father's answer, Gumball was about to open his mouth before he heard some heavy breathing behind him, prompting him to turn around and see Darwin and Anais behind them, much to his relief.

"We're so...glad we...caught up...with you," said Darwin, barely able to form a complete sentence.

"No kidding...you guys were...too fast...for us," Anais added.

"Say, since you two are here, why don't you guys tag along?" Richard suggested.

Darwin and Anais looked at their father, before they turned to Gumball, who seemed to mouth the word "help me" to them. After a moment of staring at their brother, it became quite clear he really needed their help very badly.

"Um, yeah, we'll hang out with you," Darwin replied, as he feigned a smile to Richard.

"That's right dad, we'll be having a great time," Anais added, also faking a smile as well.

"So it's settled then. We'll spend time in the park like one big happy family!" an ecstatic Richard declared out loud, as he took the lead, with his kids following right behind them, before Gumball whispered to his siblings.

"Thanks for coming with me, you guys. Just being around him is making this day unbearable."

"Don't worry about it, we got your back," Darwin assured his older brother.

"Besides, dad might have his flaws, but he means well," Anais attempted to calm Gumball down. "How could he make things worse?"

As if to answer her question, Richard opened his mouth, as the kids could do nothing but listen to what he had to say, especially Gumball.

"Kids, do you remember the time when Gumball thought he can fly, only to get stuck in a tree for three whole hours?"

The moment Richard mentioned that unfortunate incident caused Gumball to blush with anger, as he could hear a few people around snickering in response, while his siblings started to get worried, as they felt some heat coming off from their brother.

"Um, dad?" Darwin attempted to get Richard's attention.

"Or how about the time that Gumball tried cooking and ended up sending your mother to the hospital?"

Gumball was starting to becoming a bit irritated, as his body temperature started to increase, all the while more people are starting to chuckle around him, much to Darwin and Anais' concern.

"Dad, I think you should-" was all Anais could say, as Richard spoke once more.

"Say, remember the time that Gumball acted all silly during his first day at-"

"**That's enough ALREADY!"** Gumball shouted, stopping his father's conversation, as Richard looked on, quite shocked that his son reacted in such a manner.

"What's wrong, son?" Richard nervously asked, oblivious of his own actions.

"What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong!" Gumball angrily but calmly began. "You've been acting very strange today and I really don't appreciate that. Furthermore, I hate it when you go around telling these embarrassing stories about me."

"But Gumball-"

"And you've been treating me like I'm half my age! I'm a teenager now; I don't need to be treated like a little child!"

"Just let me ex-"

"Just go, please! Today is already unbearable enough as it is!"

As soon as Gumball said those words out, Richard felt like a bullet had shot him through the heart, as he stood still in shock. Eventually, his shock was soon replaced by a look of sadness on his face, as he turned and walked off, as Gumball looked on, realizing what he did just now.

"Great," Gumball muttered, instantly regretting his actions.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Gumball. It's not too late to apologize," Darwin assured his brother.

"So now's a good time to catch up to him before he gets home," Anais suggested.

With that said, the three headed off to catch up with their father, hoping that they can reach him before it was too late.

* * *

Richard was saddened with how today turned out for him; all he wanted to do was have a good time with Gumball, but he only succeeded in angering him instead. Then again, he only did it at Nicole's urging and he just wished that he had simply told Gumball the truth earlier. Perhaps then his son wouldn't have snapped at him.

'_But what if that's not enough? What do I do then?'_

"Dad, wait!"

Richard stopped in his tracks, as he turned to see Gumball, along with Darwin and Anais, right behind him, looking a bit tired from running.

"Gumball, I thought you wanted me to go," said a confused Richard, as his son began to spoke.

"I know and I'm sorry for upsetting you. I just wish I knew what's going on with you, that's all."

"Now that you mention it, there's something I've been meaning to tell you." Richard began, as he took a deep breath before talking. "You see-"

Just then, Richard found himself cut off, as he and his children heard what sounded like people screaming from behind them.

"W-What was that?" Richard nervously asked.

"I don't know, but there's no time for explanation!" Gumball quickly replied, before turning to his siblings. "Guys, get dad out of here right now!"

"What's going on?" Richard demanded, before finding himself being forcefully shoved off by Darwin and Anais, as the two took him out of the park and far away from the area, as Gumball sighed with relief, glad that his dad was out of danger, before he looked around to make sure that no one else to see what he's about to do.

'_Looks like the coast is clear,'_ Gumball thought, before he took action. "Mask on!"

* * *

Soon, Gumball's entire body was engulfed by an orange light, until it quickly disappeared, as he was in his costume attire, before he, as Toaster, took off to track down the source of the trouble.

The entire park was in a complete uproar, as everyone was frantically running away from a crazed prairie dog, who was digging through the earth underneath him, throwing large chunk of rocks in random directions, some hitting those who were unfortunate enough to be too close.

"Where are you, Number?" the prairie dog asked out loud, as the number 155 gave a brown glow on his forehead. "Come on out so I can play with you!"

"Hey Fido, if you're looking for a fight, then you got one!"

Stunned to hear this, the prairie dog turned to the source of the voice and saw an orange feline in front of him, much to his amusement, as he took notice on the number on his shoulder.

"You've just saved me some time having to look for you. Now, let's play, pussycat!"

Before Toaster knew what happened, the prairie dog stomped his foot into the ground, as a series of jagged rocks protruded upwards, immediately heading towards him. Toaster barely got of the way, as he managed to land on a safe spot and prepared to retaliate.

"Alright, you're asking for it!" Toaster warned his enemy, before he formed two fireballs from his paws and threw them at the prairie dog. To his dismay, however, the prairie dog quickly covered himself with a rock shield, preventing the fireballs from getting near him, before they sank, as he looked at Toaster with a smirk.

"Is that all you got?" he mockingly asked, as he raised a chunk of rock and threw one right at the stunned feline.

'_Damn! This is going to be harder than I thought!'_ Toaster cursed to himself, as he unexpectedly flew into the air, with jets of fire from his paws propelling him upward.

"Woah! That's a new one!" he said to himself, before he used the same method to quickly dodge one giant rock after another with ease, though Toaster began to eventually wear out. "There has to be a way of defeating him, but how?"

"Sorry we took so long!"

Toaster turned around and saw his siblings in their respective hero outfits, both hiding behind some bushes, much to his relief, before he managed to make his way to them, the two of them surprised by their brother's recent new ability.

"Wow, how did you manage to do that?" asked Scales.

"I'll explain everything later, but right now, I need your help! My fire can't reach that mutt as long as he can use his rock powers. If there was a way to distract him, it'll be much easier to take him out," Toaster explained the situation to his siblings.

"How long have you used that new power?" I.Q. asked her brother.

"Just now, why?"

"...Maybe there is a way to get his attention somewhere else..." I.Q. began, much to her brothers' curiosity. "Scales, see that pond over there? Use that to get our dog friend's attention and no matter what, distract him as much as you can. I'll tag along with Toaster and guide him until we reach the prairie dog. That'll be the moment when we strike back."

"Sounds like a good plan," said Toaster, with Scales nodding his head in agreement.

"Alright, let's do it!"

With that, the trio burst out of the bushes, ready to face their foe down once more.

"Well just what I need: three more Numbers that are going to kick the bucket," the prairie dog said with amusement.

"Oh, we'll see about that!" Scales retorted, as he drew out water from the nearby pond and immediately splashed it across the OverHundred's face.

"Really?" asked an unimpressed prairie dog. "You've got to do better than that."

Scales prepared himself for the worst, as the prairie dog raised some rocks from the ground and threw some at him, prompting Scales to immediately dodge out of harm's way, before he began to throw a wave of water right back.

"Is this what you're capable of?" the prairie dog asked loudly, becoming annoyed. "You're even worse than that orange cat!"

"Why don't you come here and say that to my face?!" Scales retorted, as he continued to splash more water right back at the dog.

As the two continued on with their spats and attacks, Toaster and I.Q. managed to distance themselves far enough away for the latter to instruct the former on what to do next.

"So Toaster, do you know where to exactly land once you take off?"

"Don't worry, I know exactly what to do."

I.Q. simply nodded her head, before Toaster allowed her to get on his back, as he closed his eyes and concentrated very hard, shooting fire out from his paws and before long, he found himself being launched up into the air, much to his amazement.

"Wow, this is so cool! I could use this to travel to school in an instant!" Toaster shouted with excitement.

"Toaster, we need to focus!" I.Q. reminded her brother.

"Right, sorry about that, sis," Toaster apologized, before he narrowed his eyes right at his target. "Hang on tight! It's going to be a rough landing!"

Soon, he and I.Q. were heading straight down, as the former stuck his foot out, just hoping that he managed to make his shot count.

* * *

Scales did all he could to keep the prairie dog to focus on him, despite feeling worn out, as he continued to throw water at his foe. The prairie dog himself, though, was starting to become quite irritated. Having had enough, he raised a loose rock that Scales was standing on, causing him to fall face first on the ground.

"This game ends right now!" the prairie dog declared out loud, as he raised a giant rock from the ground. "But before I get to crush you, is there anything else you want to say?"

"Actually, I do. Look up!" Scales replied.

Curious by this claim, the prairie dog looked up and much to his shock, he saw a figure flying towards him. Before he had a chance to react, the figure's foot ended up in his face, knocking him out cold, just as Toaster, along with I.Q., landed safely on the ground, as Scales got up and approached them.

"Wow, that was so cool back there!"

"No kidding," Toaster agreed. "I can't believe we managed to pull it off."

"Guys, I don't want to interrupt you, but I think the police is heading this way," I.Q. alerted her brothers. "We need to get our costumes off and get out of here."

Both Toaster and Scales let out a reluctant sigh, as they and their sister reverted to their casual attires and immediately left the park, not wanting to stick around, as the police approached the unconscious prairie dog.

* * *

Gumball, Darwin and Anais made it back home as fast as they could, as they looked around to see if they were being followed. Once they were certain that the coast is clear, the trio made their way to the door, with Gumball turning the knob, as they entered inside, only to be greeted by an ecstatic Richard, as he hugged his children, crying with tears of joy.

"Oh kids, I'm so glad you're safe!"

"It's alright dad, we're happy to see you too!" Gumball assured his father, before Richard released them, realizing what he had done.

"Sorry about that kids, but I got worried when none of you showed up," Richard sheepishly explained.

"It's all cool," Gumball simply said, before a thought occurred to him. "By the way, what were you going to say?"

"Oh yeah, that's right..." Richard began, before he took a deep breath and gave his son his answer. "Truth is, I was only hanging out with you because your mom asked me to. I should have told you sooner but I didn't know how to explain. I'm sorry if you're disappointed, son."

"...Actually, it's alright. It makes sense now. I'm glad you told me this to me," said Gumball, much to Richard's relief. "But if you really wanted to hang out with me, I don't mind, just as long as it's not like today."

"Fair enough," Richard agreed, just happy that he and son were able to work something out. "By the way, what exactly did you do at the park?"

Gumball didn't respond right away, his body feeling numbed, as he remained speechless on what to do next. Eventually, there was only one way for him to get out of this situation.

"Well dad, it's kind of a funny story…"

_Next time on The Awakened_

_Chapter 10-The Savior_

_Penny feels left out considering all she can do is heal, so Gumball and Rhonda drop by to convince her otherwise._

**Tidbits**

**-So once again, another member of the group managed to learn a new power and in Gumball's case, he can propel himself like a rocket.**

**-Looks like Richard and Nicole are divided regarding their attitudes towards the gang's heroic counterparts. Whether they will find out the truth or not, only time will tell, so my lips are sealed for now.**

**That's five chapters down in the Training Arc and three left to go. I hope everyone enjoyed this and I'll see ya next chapter!**


	10. The Savior

**The Awakened**

_An Amazing World of Gumball Story_

By NeoNimbus

Chapter Ten-The Savior

It was a quiet day at the Fitzgerald residence, though Penny was hardly happy with how her day was going so far, as she laid on her bed with a disappointed look. Ever since Mike advised her and the others to train in order to control their powers better, she took his words to heart, as she went through with it right away. But as it turned out, this was easier said than done; for the last few days, Penny had attempted to uncover any other powers she might have, but so far she didn't have any luck.

First, when her parents and sister were away, Penny decided to test her strength by punching a tree in the backyard as hard as she could, only to end up breaking her arm. At the same time, she discovered that she can recover from any injuries that her body sustained, as her right arm got healed in a few minutes.

Undaunted by this, Penny made another attempt by trying to see how far she could jump, a move she came to regret when she didn't jump as far as she had hoped. Thankfully for her, there was a nearby tree that managed to slow her fall and before anyone could see what happened, she managed to make a quick getaway.

Recently, Penny tried to test herself by running around the neighborhood, hoping that she could run really fast. Instead, she ended up tiring herself after half an hour, so she had to rest for an hour.

'_This is getting me nowhere...'_ Penny started to think, still lying on her bed. _'No matter what I do, I can't seem to find any other powers I might have.'_

"Penny dear, are you alright"? Mrs. Fitzgerald asked behind the closed door.

"I'm fine, mom. Just a bit sore from running around the neighborhood, that's all," Penny responded back.

"You shouldn't have pushed yourself like that in the first place," Mrs. Fitzgerald criticized her daughter. "It's one thing to stay fit, but when your body needs to rest, let it rest."

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind," Penny assured her mother.

"That's all I wanted to hear. If you need me for anything, I'll be in the kitchen."

With that, Mrs. Fitzgerald headed downstairs, leaving just Penny in her bedroom, as she mustered what strength she had to raise her body up from her bed.

"Looks like I need some help with this," said Penny, as she picked up her cellphone and dialed in the numbers. "Hey Gumball, are you free today? I need a hand with something. Bring someone else along, too, if you wouldn't mind."

* * *

After spending a few more minutes on her bed, Penny felt well enough to get off of her bed completely, as she stretched her arms and legs to get some feeling back, before she heard a knock on the front door.

"I got it," Penny called out, as she made her way downstairs and up to the front door, before she opened it up to see Gumball and Rhonda standing right in front of her, much to her joy.

"Guys, I'm so glad to see you," Penny cheerfully greeted them by hugging her boyfriend and close friend at once, before she allowed the two in the household.

"Don't mention it, Penny..." Gumball began with a smile on his face. "I'm always here to help my girlfriend out whenever...she...needs...help…"

Gumball trailed off, as he noticed his girlfriend's father standing right behind his daughter, staring at a nervous Gumball with a suspicious glare.

"Penny, are you sure you want that boy hanging around?" Mr. Fitzgerald asked his daughter.

"Dad, he's my boyfriend!" Penny replied, defending Gumball as usual.

"I'm just saying, that's all!" Mr. Fitzgerald attempted to defend himself.

"Sir, she called us over to help with something she needed," Rhonda interjected herself in the conversation, hoping to defuse the situation as fast as possible.

"Y-Yeah, we should probably do that right now," Gumball nervously agreed.

"Are you sure about that?" Mr. Fitzgerald asked, as he turned his attention to Gumball once more.

"Dad..." Penny began, as her patience with him was starting to wear thin.

"Alright, if you say so. But no funny business while you're here," Mr. Fitzgerald warned Gumball, before turning his attention to Rhonda. "It was nice seeing you again, by the way."

With that, Mr. Fitzgerald headed upstairs, leaving just the three teenagers in the living room and for a while, there was silence, until Rhonda eventually spoke up.

"Well, that could have gone better."

"Tell me about it..." Penny began with a sigh. "He's becoming even more protective of me ever since I took my shell off."

"Many people still couldn't believe their eyes when they saw what you really look like underneath it," Gumball noted, clearly remembering what happened like it was yesterday, before changing the subject. "You said you needed help with something?"

"That's right, I need some help regarding my training," Penny said to her friends.

"How is your training going?" asked Rhonda, prompting Penny to look down on the floor with disappointment.

"It's terrible. I took Mike's advice, but I haven't made any real progress. I tested myself to see what else I was capable of, but so far, all I can do is heal."

"What's wrong with that?" Gumball asked his girlfriend.

"There's nothing wrong with that. It's just that I don't seem to have any offensive abilities. How am I supposed to help you guys out if all I can do is just heal?" Penny replied in a frustrated tone.

Gumball and Rhonda looked at Penny, uncertain about how to answer her question. They knew of her as someone who would always remain cool and never complain, no matter what kind of situation she found herself in. Even so, the two couldn't help but feel bad for her. They would have been just as upset as she is if they thought they were useless.

"Don't worry Penny, we'll help you see what you're really capable of, no matter how long it takes," Gumball assured his girlfriend, as he put his paw on her shoulder.

"Gumball's right, Penny. And since you helped me out the other day, I wanted to return the favor," Rhonda said to her friend.

"Thank you so much, you guys. That really means a lot to me," said Penny, feeling a bit better upon hearing this.

"But let's test your powers somewhere else, where no one can run in on us." Rhonda suggested.

"Agreed," both Gumball and Penny simultaneously said, before all three left the Fitzgerald residence.

* * *

Ever since they discovered the isolated area within Elmore Mountain, the gang would always try to make time to go there to hone their powers and today was no exception, as Gumball, Rhonda and Penny arrived at the training ground, in the hopes of finding something else that Penny could do besides heal.

"Man, every time I come here, I love how it's still as beautiful as ever." said Penny.

"At least we won't be bothered here," Rhonda commented.

"Good point," Penny agreed. "So how does this work?"

"That depends..." Rhonda began her explanation. "We'll test out certain abilities and see how your powers react to them."

"If it helps, I already tried to test out my strength and speed," Penny informed the two. "That and I tried leaping from a tall building. I'm sure you can imagine how badly that went."

"Looks like we'll have to cross those three out then," Gumball commented, before a thought occurred to him and a grin formed on his face, much to the girls' curiosity.

"Should we trust Gumball if he makes that kind of face?" a concerned Rhonda asked Penny.

"The least we can do is give him a chance," Penny replied as this was nothing new. "Besides, he might be onto something."

"Think fast, Penny!" Gumball suddenly shouted. Before the deer could have a chance to react, she felt something hard hitting her on the head.

"OW! Gumball, what was that for?!" Penny demanded an answer from her boyfriend, rubbing her head as she glared at him angrily.

"And why did you throw a rock at her anyway?" Rhonda asked Gumball, causing him to rub his head sheepishly.

"I thought that Penny might have good reflexes, so I figured that she might catch it once I threw it."

"...Seriously, that was your plan?" Rhonda wasn't impressed by Gumball's answer.

"I was just trying to help, that's all," Gumball defensively said.

"Gumball, I know you mean well, but next time, give me a heads up before doing something like that," said Penny, before she turned her attention to Rhonda. "Do you have any other ideas?"

Rhonda pondered for a moment. After what seemed to be a very long time, something finally came to her, as she turned to face her friend.

"I think I might have something."

"You do?" both Gumball and Penny asked simultaneously.

"I do. In fact, let me put this blindfold on you right now, Penny."

"A blindfold, for w-" before Penny could finish her sentence, Rhonda put the blindfold on, making sure that Penny couldn't see and that the blindfold remained still, until Gumball finally spoke, puzzled by the mouse's actions.

"Not to doubt you or anything, but how does a blindfold help?"

"That's simple..." Rhonda began. "All Penny has to do is rely on her hearing, just like how bats use echolocation to navigate around their surroundings."

"I don't know, Rhonda. That doesn't sound interesting in the least," Gumball remained skeptical of this plan.

"Just trust me on this," Rhonda insisted, before turning her attention to Penny. "Are you ready for this?"

"Sure, I guess," Penny replied with uncertainty. "So what do I have to do?"

"All you have to do is to go from where you are now to where Gumball and I will be, all the while avoiding some rocks that are in your path," Rhonda instructed, before she and the blue feline headed towards the end of the training ground. "Just take your time."

"Alright, I will," said Penny, before she took a deep breath and began slowly navigating through the training ground. So far, she seemed to be doing quite well.

* * *

'_This isn't bad so far...'_ Penny began to reconsider this idea. _'Maybe this wasn't such a bad-'_

Her train of thought came to an abrupt end, as the deer's foot caught on a rock, and before long, she ended up falling to the ground face first.

"Are you alright?" Gumball called out to his girlfriend, as Penny picked herself up from the ground.

"I'm fine Gumball, though I can't say the same about my pride," Penny replied with disappointment in her tone.

"Don't worry, I'm sure this won't take too long. Just keep trying," Rhonda advised her friend.

"Alright, I'll give it another shot," Penny called back, as she resumed with her long walk. "I'm sure it won't take too long."

* * *

Unfortunately for Penny, it took her more than twenty minutes, as she continued to trip on one pebble after another, before finally arriving at her destination, irate that this attempt was all for nothing.

But this paled in comparison to what she had to go through the rest of the day. After the echolocation proved ineffective, Gumball suggested that his girlfriend might have telekinesis, similar to his sister, prompting Penny to concentrate on a nearby rock as hard as she could. But after a few more minutes, all she ended up getting was a migraine.

Next, Rhonda suggested that Penny could deflect incoming attacks, as she instructed her friend to remain still, as the mouse raised her arm up and began to shoot lasers at the deer. However, this proved to be just as ineffective, as Penny kept dodging, and even got hit a few times, but she did heal quickly enough where it wouldn't do any real damage.

Both Gumball and Rhonda made one last attempt to test Penny's power by trying to see if she would be able to predict moves in advance. The two of them rushed towards her, looking to see what Penny would do, but they only ended up colliding with each other, as Penny jumped out of their way. Once they managed to get up, the three of them decided to call it a day.

"OW! That did not feel good," Rhonda commented, as she rubbed her sore head.

"That's pretty much an understatement back there," Gumball pointed out, a bit sore from the impact.

"Guys, I'm so sorry back there! I just freaked out, that's all!" Penny apologized to the two for her earlier actions.

"It's all good, Penny. It wasn't a good idea on our part as well," Rhonda assured her friend.

"That's beside the point, Rhonda..." Penny began in a sad tone. "No matter what I do, I don't have anything that can prove useful. Let's face the facts, I'm useless."

"Don't beat yourself up over that," Gumball said to his girlfriend. "So we didn't have any luck today, but that doesn't mean you should give up like that. We'll keep trying. Who knows? We might end up finding something pretty soon."

"Gumball, I appreciate what you're doing, but-"

Before Penny could finish her sentence, she found herself cut off by screaming, as the trio witnessed several people running past them in fear.

"Well this is just great! We just got back to town and another OverHundred has to ruin our day!" Gumball complained.

"Now's not the time for that, Gumball. We have to find whoever is doing this and take them out," Rhonda informed her friend.

"Rhonda's right, Gumball..." Penny agreed with the mouse. "We need to take action right now."

* * *

Once the trio agreed on what to do, they head to the nearest alleyway and changed into their superhero personas, before heading off to the source of the commotion.

It took at least a few minutes, but the trio managed to arrive at their destination, as more citizens were desperately trying to get away from the carnage.

"I wonder who would cause this much destruction?" Toaster asked out loud.

"Considering who we've been fighting so far, this shouldn't be a surprise," Photondra simply commented.

"Whatever it is, we have to prepare ourselves," Savior advised the two, before she spotted something, or someone, in the cloud of dust. "Guys, he's over there!"

Both Toaster and Photondra turned in the direction the deer pointed out and soon, the three prepared to face the inevitable. But once the cloud of dust settled down, the trio was stunned to see who they were looking at. In front of them was a rooster, wearing an opened Hawaiian shirt and brown shorts, with the number 161 on his chest. It was the last thing they expected to see today.

"What...the...hell?" Toaster finally asked.

"Seriously, this is it?" Photondra was just as stunned as her friends are. "I was expecting more from the OverHundred."

Unexpectedly, the rooster calmly turned to face the trio, and before they knew it, he suddenly crowded, unleashing a sonic boom from his beak, much to the three's shock.

"DUCK!" Savior shouted, as she, her boyfriend and Rhonda all ducked to the side, barely avoiding the sonic boom, as it quickly demolished a nearby building.

"I knew this was too good to be true!" an irate Toaster spoke out, as he formed some fireballs from his paws.

"Let's take him out before he gets away," Photondra suggested, as her left hand let out a glow.

"Agreed," Savior simply said, ready to face the fight head on.

The trio made their way towards the rooster, who once again crowded, unleashing another sonic boom, prompting the three to dodge once more. Soon, the rooster continued to unleash one sonic boom after another, while Toaster and Photondra shot out their respective powers against their target. Unfortunately for them, the rooster let out another sonic boom, causing their powers to disperse, prompting the two to duck for the nearest cover.

"Wow, I have to admit, I didn't see that one coming," Toaster admitted.

"No kidding," Photondra agreed. "Looks like long-range attacks won't be as effective as I thought."

"So how are we supposed to take him down? We can't just get close to him and smack him in the face," Toaster pointed out.

While the two tried to come up with a plan to take down the rooster, Savior looked on from a few feet away, still taking cover from the rooster's sonic boom, concerned and wanting to help out but not knowing how to pull it off. She didn't care whether she put her life on the line, so long as her boyfriend and Photondra would be fine and well.

'_You've got to think this through.. .'_ Savior thought to herself. _'I need to find a way to stop this rooster, but how will I pull this one off?'_

As Savior continued to figure out her next course of action, she turned her gaze to the OverHundred, as he turned his attention to a nearby piece of debris and let out a sonic boom, hitting it with ease, before she turned her gaze back to the duo. It didn't take her too long to realize what was about to happen.

'_Oh no!'_ Savior thought and without thinking twice, she ran towards them as fast as she could, before leaping right at the two, barely pushing them out of the way, just as the large piece of debris was about to hit her.

"Savior, no!" Toaster shouted, as he and Photondra attempted to get back to their companion.

But what happened next took them by complete surprise: as the debris was about to make contact with Savior, her entire body suddenly changed to match the street pavement, and as a result, the debris shattered over her head, leaving her unharmed as she changed back to her old self, just as Toaster and Photondra reached her.

"...How did you do that?" Photondra finally asked, speechless by what she just witnessed.

"I don't know," Savior admitted, as she rubbed her head sheepishly. "I'm just as surprised as you guys are."

"Look out!" Toaster yelled, as the rooster took in a deep breath and let out the biggest sonic boom the trio had ever encountered.

"Don't worry, I think I got this!" Savior declared, as she touched a nearby metal scrap, just as the sonic boom was about to reach them. Suddenly, Savior's body turned to steel and she managed to shield her friends from the oncoming attack. Savior then began to slowly make her way to the rooster, putting in as much effort as she can with her newfound power.

'_Come on, you can do this!'_ Savior thought to herself, as she continued to push herself as much as she could.

For his part, the rooster continued to use his sonic boom attack, which did little to stop his opponent in the slightest; after what felt like forever, Savior finally made his way to the rooster, who attempted to flee for his life, only to get a fist in his face, knocking the rooster out cold as Savior returned to her normal self.

"Wow, that was amazing!" Toaster praised his girlfriend.

"Don't mention it. It was better than doing nothing," Savior assured her boyfriend, before she fell down to her knees. "Though I should probably practice this new ability I have."

"Agreed. It looks like it takes a lot out of you," Photondra noted, before she heard police sirens coming. "But for now, let's get out of here."

Nodding their heads in agreement, the trio left the scene as quickly as they could, narrowly avoiding the police.

* * *

After reverting back to their casual attire, Rhonda headed off to her house, as Gumball and Penny began to walk back to the Fitzgerald's, simply enjoying each other's company.

"That was a pretty neat power you had back there," Gumball commented. "At least you know that healing isn't the only power you can do."

"Yeah, I'll admit, it was pretty awesome," Penny agreed. "Still, I shouldn't be too reckless using it all the time."

"You're right about that. We should all continue to train to make sure nothing goes wrong with our powers," said Gumball, before quickly changing the subject. "So how was today for you?"

"Other than narrowly surviving another OverHundred attack, I'd say it was good," Penny replied, just as she and her boyfriend finally arrived at her house. "I also wanted to thank you and Rhonda for helping me out."

"It was nothing, Penny. I did what I could to help out," Gumball insisted, before his and Penny's eyes locked on each other.

"Gumball..."

"Penny..."

Soon, the two closed their eyes, their lips slowly inching towards each other before suddenly being interrupted by Penny's father.

"Am I interrupting anything?" the moment that Mr. Fitzgerald spoke out, both Gumball and Penny turned to see him right in front of them and as always, he had a disgruntled look on his face, as he stared intently at the nervous blue feline.

"Oh, look at the time, I should get going now. I'll see you later Penny!" Gumball feverishly said, before he quickly left the Fitzgerald residence as fast as he could, leaving just Penny with her father, the former displeased by the latter for ruining the moment.

"Was that really necessary, dad?" Penny asked her father.

"I just wanted to make sure nothing funny was going on between you two," Mr. Fitzgerald replied, before noticing a look of displeasure on his daughter's face. "But I'm sure that Gumball was just being a good Samaritan."

"If you say so," said Penny, deciding to play along with her father.

"So how did today go for you?" asked Mr. Fitzgerald, as he allowed his daughter inside the house, curious to know what she did.

"Just hanging out with my friends, as usual," was Penny's answer, as she smiled back to her dad.

_Next time on The Awakened_

_Chapter 11-The Scales_

_Darwin's training is interrupted when his girlfriend Rachel suddenly shows up and fearing rejection, he turns to Anais and Mike for help._

**Tidbits**

**-Penny originally had the ability to form a shield around herself, but both Sal and I disliked the idea, so eventually, she gained the ability to absorb any property in her vicinity. Before anyone else says anything, her power is loosely based off both Kevin 11 from Ben 10 AND the Absorbing Man, a Marvel Comics character. **

**-As shown in this chapter, Mr. Fitzgerald still has yet to accept Gumball and Penny being together. Whether he will accept it or not remains to be seen.**

**Six down and two more left to go, as we are getting closer to the conclusion of the Training Arc. So until then, see ya next chapter!**


End file.
